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Psychology and Constructivism in International Relations: An Ideational Alliance . Edited by Vaughn P. Shannon and Paul A. Kowert . Ann Arbor, MI : University of Michigan Press , 2012. 298p. $80.00 cloth.
Book Reviews: International Relations
The title here tells the story. This is a collection of essays by psychologists and constructivist International Relations scholars devoted to the proposition that each discourse has much to learn from the other and thus that they should form an "ideational alliance." The adjective ideational is appropriate because each of the two fields, while they disagree on much else, agree that international relations are best approached in ideational rather than strictly material terms. The scholars represented here came together as a group in what has become the standard modus operandi for this kind of collaboration; that is, as fellow panellists at meetings of the International Studies Association (in 2008 and 2009). The volume they have produced follows a standard pattern, with six substantive case studies topped and tailed by essays surveying the field. The result is a stimulating and thoughtful book which works very well within the limits the authors have set for themselves. In so far as it merits criticism, it is because those limits are, perhaps, drawn so tightly that much interesting work is excluded.
The introductory chapter by Vaughn Shannon is very clear about one of these limits: "the contributors to this volume speak most directly to modernist or conventional constructivism, as opposed to critical constructivism" (p. 13). Shannon and Paul Kowert, in the second introductory chapter, "Completing the Ideational Triangle: Identity, Choice and Obligation in International Relations," set out the agenda that follows from this limitation. The essays in this book home-in on choice, identity, and norms, combining constructivist work in these areas with insights...