Critical and Alternative IR Theories

Building on Wendt's foundational claims, a broader constructivist research program examined how international norms, understood as shared standards of appropriate behavior, and state identities are socially constructed and can change over time. Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, in a widely cited 1998 article, proposed a "norm life cycle" model describing how norms emerge through advocacy by norm entrepreneurs, cascade as more states adopt them under pressure for conformity and legitimacy, and eventually become internalized as taken-for-granted standards, using examples such as the spread of prohibitions against slavery, chemical weapons, and, later, landmines. Constructivists argue that state interests are not simply given by material power, as realists assume, but are shaped by identities and norms that themselves evolve through interaction, meaning that phenomena such as the end of the Cold War are better explained by ideational change than by shifts in material capabilities alone.