CONFLICT AND COOPERATION IN IR: ALEXANDER WENDT’S CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY

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Abstract

One of the significant issues in IR is that of inter – state conflict and cooperation. Various schools such as Realism and liberalism have endeavored to theoretically explain it. In so doing, this article seeks to outline the views offered by a constructivist thinker, Alexander Wendt. He treats IR as a socially constructed discipline. This article argues that although Wendt has managed to advance a social theory of cooperation and conflict among states, especially about ethnic conflict, his theory has failed to explain cooperative as well as conflictual relationships among states properly.

One of the significant issues in IR is that of inter – state conflict and cooperation. Various schools such as Realism and liberalism have endeavored to theoretically explain it. In so doing, this article seeks to outline the views offered by a constructivist thinker, Alexander Wendt.

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