SEIZING THE MIDDLE GROUND - CONSTRUCTIVISM IN WORLD-POLITICS

In recent years, a great deal has been written about a 'constructivist ' approach in International Relations, which argues that international reality is socially constructed by cognitive structures that give mea ning to the material world. Nevertheless, most of the epistemological, theoretical, empirical and methodological foundations of constructivi sm remain unclear. Nor are its potential contributions to a better und erstanding of International Relations widely appreciated. The present article seeks to fill some of these gaps. Constructivism occupies the middle ground between rationalist approaches (whether realist or liber al) and interpretive approaches (mainly postmodernist, poststructurali st and critical), and creates new areas for theoretical and empirical investigation. The bulk of the article lays out the social-epistemolog ical basis of the constructivist approach; juxtaposes constructivism t o rationalism and poststructuralism and explains its advantages; prese nts the concept of cognitive evolution as a way of explaining the soci al construction of reality; and suggests ways of expanding constructiv ist research agendas.