Alexander Wendt (political scientist)

Alexander Wendt (born June 12, 1958 in Mainz ) is a German - American political scientist . He is considered to be one of the founders and most important representatives of constructivism in the theory of international relations .

Career

Wendt's German-American family moved to the United States two years after he was born. From 1977 to 1982 Wendt studied political science and philosophy at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota . A seven-year doctoral period followed his studies. At the University of Minnesota was his doctoral supervisor Raymond Duvall , who was able to inspire him to occupy himself with social theory.

Since 2004 he has been Mershon Professor for International Security in the Department of Political Science at Ohio State University with a focus on "Theory of International Relations", "Philosophy of Social Sciences" and "International Organizations".

Previous stations in his professional career were the University of Chicago (1999–2004: Associate Professor, Department of Political Science), Dartmouth College (1997–1999: Associate Professor, Department of Government) and Yale University (1995–1997: Associate Professor , 1989-1995: Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science).

Theoretical approach

Wendt founded structural constructivism in political science with his much noticed and discussed article from 1992 in the journal International Organization 46.2: " Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics" .

Appealing to liberal theories, he attacked the neorealist paradigm that in an anarchic state, states would only be able to cooperate with one another in exceptional cases because they acted selfishly and only interested in their own security. Wendt argued that the actions of states are influenced not only by “ structures ” but also by “processes” (interacting and learning). In learning and interaction processes, states are able to change not only their behavior, but also their identities and interests. Thus states are able to cooperate with one another just as they are able to act selfishly. He tried to explain the interests and identities of the actors (i.e. the states) endogenously in his model of structural constructivism.

Wendt Nicholas Onuf called this “social theory”, which tried to explain the interests and identities of actors, “ constructivism ” and introduced it for the first time to international relations. His theory arose in view of the dramatic changes in the international system in the late 1980s, i.e. the end of the Cold War .

“My objective in this article is to build a bridge between these two traditions [Neorealismus vs Neoliberalismus ] (…) by developing a constructivist argument, drawn from structurationist and symbolic interactionist sociology, on behalf of the liberal claim that international institutions can transform state identities and interests. In contrast to the "economic" theorizing that dominates mainstream systemic international scholarship, this involves a "sociological social psychological" form of systemic theory in which identities and interests are the dependent variable. "

- Wendt, Alexander : International Organization, Vol. 46 No. 2, p. 394 (1992)

Fonts

Monographs

• Social Theory of International Politics , Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-46960-0
• Quantum Mind and Social Science: Unifying Physical and Social Ontology , Cambridge University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-107-44292-4

items

• "The agent-structure problem in international relations theory" in International Organization , vol. 41, no.3, 1987.
• "Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics" in International Organization , vol. 46, no. 2, 1992.
• "The Difference that Realism Makes: Social Science and the Politics of Consent." (With Ian Shapiro) in Politics and Society 20: 197-223, 1992
• "Dependent State Formation and Third World Militarization" (with Michael Barnett) in Review of International Studies , 19, 321-347., 1993
• "Collective identity formation and the international state" in American Political Science Review , vol. 88, no. 2, 1994.
• "Hierarchy Under Anarchy: Informal Empire and the East German State" (with Daniel Friedheim), International Organization , 49, 689–721, 1995
• “Constructing international politics” in International Security , vol. 20, no.1, 1995.
• "On Constitution and Causation in International Relations", Review of International Studies , 24 (special issue), 101-118, 1998
• "Driving with the rearview mirror: on the rational science of institutional design" International Organization , vol. 55, no.4, 2001
• "Why a world state is inevitable" in European Journal of International Relations , vol. 9, no.4, 2003.
• "The state as person in international theory" in Review of International Studies , vol. 30, no. 2, 2004.
• "Sovereignty and the UFO" (with Raymond Duvall ) in Political Theory , Vol. 36, No. 4, 607-633, 2008.

Contributions to edited volumes

• "Institutions and International Order", 1989 (with Raymond Duvall) In Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges edited by E. Czempiel, and J. Rosenau. Lexington, Mass .: Lexington Books.
• "The International System and Dependent Militarization", 1992 (with Michael Barnett), in Brian Job, ed., The Insecurity Dilemma: National Security of Third World States , Boulder: Lynne Rienner, pp. 97-119.
• "Norms, Identity and Culture in National Security", 1996 (with Ronald Jepperson and Peter Katzenstein), in Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security , New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 33-75.
• "What is IR For ?: Notes Toward a Post-Critical View", 2000 in Richard Wyn Jones, ed., Critical Theory and World Politics , Boulder: Lynne Rienner, pp. 205-224.
• "Rationalism v. Constructivism: A Skeptical View ", 2002 (with James Fearon ) In Handbook of International Relations , edited by W. Carlsnaes, T. Risse, and B. Simmons. London: Sage.
• "Social Theory 'as Cartesian Science: An Auto-Critique from a Quantum Perspective", 2006 In Constructivism and International Relations , edited by Stefano Guzzini and Anna Leander. London: Routledge.
• "Militant Agnosticism and the UFO Taboo" (with Raymond Duvall) p. 269ff., In: Leslie Kean: UFOs - Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record . Harmony Books, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-307-71684-2 .

Web links

• Wendt's chair homepage at Ohio State University
• Interview with Alexander Wendt at Theory Talks (April 2008)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stefano Guzzini: Alexander Wendt. In: Gisela Riescher (Ed.): Political Theory of the Present in Individual Representations. From Adorno to Young (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 343). Kröner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-34301-0 , pp. 489-492, p. 489.