Uluslararası İlişkilerde Konstrüktivist Yaklaşım: Dış Politikaya Kimlik, Söylem ve Norm Perspektifinden Bakmak
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In the discipline of International Relations, the constructivist approach analyzes foreign policy through the concepts of identity, discourse, and norms.Traditional theories such as realism, liberalism, and their neorealist and neoliberal versions generally analyze foreign policy based on material interests, the balance of power, and institutions.However, these approaches fall short in explaining identity-based preferences of states, the construction processes shaped by discourses in international relations, and normative interactions.Constructivism, on the other hand, offers an alternative analytical framework by arguing that state interests are not fixed but are reshaped depending on changing identities and discourses.In this context, it claims that foreign policy is shaped not only by material factors but also by how actors define themselves and others, and by their relationship with international norms.Constructivism became particularly popular in the post-Cold War period.The failure of the dominant theories in the discipline, such as (neo)realism and (neo)liberalism, to foresee the end of the Cold War and the developments that followed, and their inability to adequately explain these developments, played a significant role in this rise in popularity.Constructivists, who argue that the structure of the international system is not composed solely of material factors, have especially emphasized that the influence of norms, rules, ideas, and identity cannot be ignored.In this study, theoretical discussions are supported with concrete case examples, demonstrating the practical functionality of the constructivist approach.Through these examples, foreign policy preferences based on identity, discourse, and normswhich classical theories such as realism and liberalism struggle to explain -become more comprehensible.In this way, the constructivist approach clearly reveals both its theoretical richness and its analytical contribution to understanding and interpreting foreign policy.
Author: Kadir SANCAK
Institution: Gümüşhane University
Language: Turkish
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4414798376