Conventional and Critical Constructivist Approaches to National Security

Abstract

This article aims to consider two different (or contentious) constructivist approaches to national security in the study of international relations: conventional constructivist security studies, on the one hand, and critical constructivist security studies on the other. In so doing, this article will examine both constructivisms' main assumptions and core concepts, such as norms, socialization, identity, culture, identity/difference, discourse, and so on. Of these concepts, special attention is paid to the concepts of "culture"and "identity"by investigating the

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“…In doing so we can gain insights into how identity politics surrounding a state affect security or diplomacy in international relations (Cho, 2012). Critical constructivism can explain how identity themselves can often produce insecurity, whereas conventional constructivism shows the role identity plays in connecting "environmental structures and interests" (Cho, 2009& Katzenstein, 1996. A pragmatic approach involves selecting aspects of both critical and conventional constructivist theory based on their merits.…”

“…Wendt, however, admits that his weakness in examining a state's corporate identity can be solved by moving the responsibility for analysis to Campbell (Wendt, 1999). Weldes and Campbell are crucial for understanding the relational nature of a state's corporate identity to that of difference and the Other (Cho, 2009). A hole which is left unanswered by Wendt that Weldes expands on well in the case of crises, where the Us, difference and the Other, are all produced in "a mutually constitutive process" (Weldes, 1999).…”

“…The unrest was due to "madness" rather than the ethnic cleansing (Thinley, 1994). In establishing this moral space, the state can "[cope] with new occurrences of ambiguity or contingency" (Cho, 2009). The environmental situation for the constructed Bhutanese state and political elite was, according to Prime Minister Thinley, a "state of siege" with an aggressive China in the north, the annexation of Sikkim and the Lhotshampa in the south calling for widespread reform (Thinley, 1994).…”

“…The environmental situation for the constructed Bhutanese state and political elite was, according to Prime Minister Thinley, a "state of siege" with an aggressive China in the north, the annexation of Sikkim and the Lhotshampa in the south calling for widespread reform (Thinley, 1994). This identity enabled a "construction of a certain crisis" allowing state power to be consolidated by the political elite (Cho, 2009). The Lhotshampa situation can be understood as a conflict between the political elite and Lhotshampa peoples in which the elite won (Sinha, 1994).…”

“…The Bhutan Watch 6 enables crises" and "crises enable state identity" (Cho, 2009& Weldes, 1999. They take state identity as something to be investigated to help explain insecurity.…”