Social constructivism
- From a social constructivist perspective, NATO is not just another alliance or security institution, but the institutional embodiment of the transatlantic security community, which is based on a collective identity of liberal democracies. This collective identity serves as the main explanatory factor for social constructivist research dealing with NATO’s creation, its specific institutional design and its unique culture of consultation. It also helps understand NATO’s persistence after the end of the Cold War, its enlargement and its (liberal) out-of-area operations and missions in the post-Cold War period. Constructivism has become one of the key theoretical approaches in NATO research, offering a broader view of the Alliance and accounting for empirical anomalies that competitors fail to explain. Still, constructivist research has arguably not yet reached its full potential and could offer additional insights into NATO’s past, presence and future. These lacunae are addressed in the chapter.
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
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Language: | English |
Author(s): | Tobias Bunde |
Editor(s): | Sebastian Mayer |
Parent Title (English): | Research Handbook on NATO |
Publisher: | Edward Elgar Publishing Limited |
Place of Publisher: | Cheltenham |
Publication year: | 2023 |
Publishing Institution: | Hertie School |
First Page: | 69 |
Last Page: | 83 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839103391.00014 |
ISBN: | 9781839103384 |
Release Date: | 2023/11/24 |
Tag: | Identity; Liberal-democratic values; NATO; Security cooperation; Social constructivism; Transatlantic security community |
Hertie School Research: | Centre for International Security |
Licence of document (German): |