International Relations Theories Question Set Journal

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.. because the self, in this logic, becomes social though acquiring and fulfilling an institutional identity" (Dunne, Kurki, and Smith 181).

6.) What does it mean to say that identities and interests are mutually constituted?

One of the central premises postulated by the constructivist theory of international relations is based on the concept of mutual constitution, a term describing a coexistent social relationship between states in which agency, or the element of independent choice, is partially dependent on the decisions of one another (Dunne, Kurki, and Smith 182). The identity of any actor necessarily determines their interests, with nations based on capitalist economies prioritizing the exploitation of natural resources for material gain, and socialist states vesting authority in a central government structure to mitigate scarcity through forcibly equalized distribution. This is not to say that the interests of a state are irrelevant to the international relations process, but simply to observe that "while constructivists would not deny the importance of interests, they would tie them more directly to the identity of the subject ... (as) neither identity nor interests can be detached from a world of social meaning" (Dunne, Kurki, and Smith 182). As the constructivist school of thought largely emerged from the seismic shift in international relations brought on by the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, it is useful to examine instances from that protracted conflict in which identities and interests were mutually constituted.

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In the wake of America's devastating nuclear destruction of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nation's previous sense of identity as an international peacekeeper and country of compassion, spurred a vibrant movement with the interest of opposing the proliferation of nuclear arms. This identity, and its associated national interests, shifted almost immediately, however, as "the mass production of nuclear weapons by the U.S.A., after the Second World War and during the Cold War, was a response to the emerging conflict with the Soviet Union" (Dunne, Kurki, and Smith 182). The nonviolent revolutions of civil protest which signaled the demise of the Soviet Union, and with it America's identity as an aggressor in the nuclear arms race, are yet another example of mutual constitution in action (Dunne, Kurki, and Smith 183), as the identity of former Soviet-bloc states suddenly changed due to the actions of a courageous group of public dissenters......

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