The Essentials of the Constructivist Troublesome in Foreign Policy Analysis

پژوهش نامه ایرانی سیاست بین الملل

Article 14, Volume 10, Issue 2 - Serial Number 20, March 2022, Pages 345-368   

Document Type: Original Article

DOI: 10.22067/irlip.2021.21522.0

Authors

naser yosefzehy; Vahid Sinaee^*

Associate Professor of Political Science ,Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Corresponding Author

Abstract

Constructivism is one of the most widely used theoretical approach for analizing foreign policy. But this approach has failed yet to provide the researches with a coherent and modeled framework. Therefore, many studies have not been sufficiently aware of the theoretical, methodological and conceptual necessities that should have been considered in foreign policy analysis. For this reason, they have undergone superficial analysis and "theoretical reductionism". For example, constructivists in ontology have not addressed "anthropology" and "socialization." Such a "problem" stems from the nature of constructivism; because constructivism is a buffer and synthesis of positivism and post-structuralism, has included a paradoxical combination of objective and subjective elements in foreign policy analysis. Therefore, empirical studies require methodical theoretical studies. With the aim of compiling a research guide for constructivist researchers, the question is addressed: based on constructivism what are the theoretical foundations and requirements of research in foreign policy analysis. According to our findings, the study of foreign policy requires the analysis of constructivism in the five dimensions of ontology, epistemology, methodology, typology and conceptology. In ontology, "level of analysis" and "units of analysis" must be specified: micro level (anthropology, socialization and stateology) and macro level (international system, international organizations, international law, international structures and agents). In epistemology, the relationship between knowledge and value, subject and object, explanation and interpretation, reality and truth, material and meaning are analyzed. Ontology and epistemology determine the method of research: quantitative or qualitative. Then the type of constructivism is chosen: interpretive, critical, and post-modern or positivist. Finally, the basic conceptual constructs are extracted and defined: inter-subjectivity, constructivism, culture, identity, idea, knowledge, norm, and socialization. These five requirements indicate the complexity and difficulty of constructivist analysis of foreign policy.

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