Wesley W Widmaier
Biographic Data
| ID | 2274092 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wesley W Widmaier |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wesley W |
| FAMILY NAME | Widmaier |
| SIGNATURE | WIDMAIER W W |
| AFFILIATIONS | St. Joseph's University New York |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 217 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The benefits of norm ambiguity
Over the past two decades, International Relations scholars have highlighted the importance of efforts by hegemonic states and norm entrepreneurs to foster norm clarity when promoting the establishment, institutionalisation, and internalisation of norms. Yet, such analyses obscure the benefits of norm ambiguity in facilitating consensus, flexibility, and compliance. The authors offer a framework positing that hegemonic and institutional ambiguity…
Differences Beyond Theory
Over the past two decades, one of the main themes in IR theory debates has been a concern for the interplay of agents, structures, and change. In this article, we engage with these debates as they pertain to “the state of the art” by highlighting in broad fashion three “constructivist turns” and their implications for efforts to explain the rise and demise of norms. More specifically, we offer a stylized history of a debate marked by shifting emp…
Exogenous Shocks or Endogenous Constructions? The Meanings of Wars and Crises
This symposium addresses the role of wars and crises as mechanisms of international change. Over the past two decades, the international system has undergone a number of remarkable transformations, from the end of the Cold War to the emergence of an ongoing ''War on Terror,'' and from the collapse of statist development models to the emergence of a contested-if evolving-neoliberal ''Washington Consensus.'' This volatility exceeds any underlying s…
Constructing Foreign Policy Crises
Over the past century, crises have often driven shifts in U.S. foreign policy, as a liberal tradition has been permissive of varying tendencies to isolationism, pragmatism, or a crusading internationalism. While materialist analyses emphasize the impacts of crises on the capabilities of state and societal agents, they obscure the role of agents in interpreting crises. In this paper, I therefore offer a constructivist analysis, stressing the role …
Systemic Pressures and the Intersubjective Bases of State Autonomy in Russia
Over the economic crises of the 1990s, global economic understandings shifted from the early classical orthodoxy of the 'Washington Consensus' to a later Keynesian support for demand stimulus and capital controls. However, Russian policy - particularly after the 1998 ruble crisis - partly deviated from these broader trends, combining Keynesian capital controls with classical budgetary restraint. In offering a 'constructivist-institutionalist' exp…
The Democratic Peace is What States Make of It
In 1971, the United States and India — the world’s two largest democracies — almost went to war in a ‘near-miss’ at odds with the hypothesis that democracies do not fight one another. In this article, I reformulate the democratic peace hypothesis by subsuming it under a broadened constructivist analysis, one that recognizes that institutional qualities do not ‘speak for themselves’ but rather that struggles over the meaning of democracy can engen…
"The Social Construction of the "Impossible Trinity
Over the postwar period, states have shifted from cooperation in support of monetary guidelines, or standards for variation in wages, prices, and exchange rates, to the use of austerity as the primary means of maintaining monetary stability. In this article I offer a constructivist theory of international monetary relations in order to explain this shift, contrasting the effects of Keynesian and Neoclassical understandings on interests in coopera…
Constructing monetary crises
Over the past two decades, monetary crises have played a key role in spurring increased monetary cooperation. From one, materialist, vantage, such crises appear as exogenous shocks, which matter primarily as they alter the material incentives to cooperation. However, such frameworks obscure the importance of debates over the meaning of crises, monetary understandings, and state interests themselves. I therefore offer a constructivist theory of cr…
Systemic Interpretations and the National Interest
In addressing the interplay of international forces and domestic policy, materialist frameworks such as neorealism and neoliberalism emphasize the influence of exogenously given systemic incentives on state and societal choices. However, these approaches are insufficient to the extent that material incentives must be interpreted and shifts in such interpretations may legitimate transformations of state and societal interests. In this article, we …
Exogenous Shocks or Endogenous Constructions? The Meanings of Wars and Crises
This symposium addresses the role of wars and crises as mechanisms of international change. Over the past two decades, the international system has undergone a number of remarkable transformations, from the end of the Cold War to the emergence of an ongoing ''War on Terror,'' and from the collapse of statist development models to the emergence of a contested-if evolving-neoliberal ''Washington Consensus.'' This volatility exceeds any underlying s…
Constructing Foreign Policy Crises
Over the past century, crises have often driven shifts in U.S. foreign policy, as a liberal tradition has been permissive of varying tendencies to isolationism, pragmatism, or a crusading internationalism. While materialist analyses emphasize the impacts of crises on the capabilities of state and societal agents, they obscure the role of agents in interpreting crises. In this paper, I therefore offer a constructivist analysis, stressing the role …
"The Social Construction of the "Impossible Trinity
Over the postwar period, states have shifted from cooperation in support of monetary guidelines, or standards for variation in wages, prices, and exchange rates, to the use of austerity as the primary means of maintaining monetary stability. In this article I offer a constructivist theory of international monetary relations in order to explain this shift, contrasting the effects of Keynesian and Neoclassical understandings on interests in coopera…
The benefits of norm ambiguity
Over the past two decades, International Relations scholars have highlighted the importance of efforts by hegemonic states and norm entrepreneurs to foster norm clarity when promoting the establishment, institutionalisation, and internalisation of norms. Yet, such analyses obscure the benefits of norm ambiguity in facilitating consensus, flexibility, and compliance. The authors offer a framework positing that hegemonic and institutional ambiguity…
Differences Beyond Theory
Over the past two decades, one of the main themes in IR theory debates has been a concern for the interplay of agents, structures, and change. In this article, we engage with these debates as they pertain to “the state of the art” by highlighting in broad fashion three “constructivist turns” and their implications for efforts to explain the rise and demise of norms. More specifically, we offer a stylized history of a debate marked by shifting emp…
The Democratic Peace is What States Make of It
In 1971, the United States and India — the world’s two largest democracies — almost went to war in a ‘near-miss’ at odds with the hypothesis that democracies do not fight one another. In this article, I reformulate the democratic peace hypothesis by subsuming it under a broadened constructivist analysis, one that recognizes that institutional qualities do not ‘speak for themselves’ but rather that struggles over the meaning of democracy can engen…
Constructing monetary crises
Over the past two decades, monetary crises have played a key role in spurring increased monetary cooperation. From one, materialist, vantage, such crises appear as exogenous shocks, which matter primarily as they alter the material incentives to cooperation. However, such frameworks obscure the importance of debates over the meaning of crises, monetary understandings, and state interests themselves. I therefore offer a constructivist theory of cr…
Systemic Interpretations and the National Interest
In addressing the interplay of international forces and domestic policy, materialist frameworks such as neorealism and neoliberalism emphasize the influence of exogenously given systemic incentives on state and societal choices. However, these approaches are insufficient to the extent that material incentives must be interpreted and shifts in such interpretations may legitimate transformations of state and societal interests. In this article, we …
Constructing monetary crises
Over the past two decades, monetary crises have played a key role in spurring increased monetary cooperation. From one, materialist, vantage, such crises appear as exogenous shocks, which matter primarily as they alter the material incentives to cooperation. However, such frameworks obscure the importance of debates over the meaning of crises, monetary understandings, and state interests themselves. I therefore offer a constructivist theory of cr…
Systemic Interpretations and the National Interest
In addressing the interplay of international forces and domestic policy, materialist frameworks such as neorealism and neoliberalism emphasize the influence of exogenously given systemic incentives on state and societal choices. However, these approaches are insufficient to the extent that material incentives must be interpreted and shifts in such interpretations may legitimate transformations of state and societal interests. In this article, we …
"The Social Construction of the "Impossible Trinity
Over the postwar period, states have shifted from cooperation in support of monetary guidelines, or standards for variation in wages, prices, and exchange rates, to the use of austerity as the primary means of maintaining monetary stability. In this article I offer a constructivist theory of international monetary relations in order to explain this shift, contrasting the effects of Keynesian and Neoclassical understandings on interests in coopera…
The Democratic Peace is What States Make of It
In 1971, the United States and India — the world’s two largest democracies — almost went to war in a ‘near-miss’ at odds with the hypothesis that democracies do not fight one another. In this article, I reformulate the democratic peace hypothesis by subsuming it under a broadened constructivist analysis, one that recognizes that institutional qualities do not ‘speak for themselves’ but rather that struggles over the meaning of democracy can engen…
Systemic Pressures and the Intersubjective Bases of State Autonomy in Russia
Over the economic crises of the 1990s, global economic understandings shifted from the early classical orthodoxy of the 'Washington Consensus' to a later Keynesian support for demand stimulus and capital controls. However, Russian policy - particularly after the 1998 ruble crisis - partly deviated from these broader trends, combining Keynesian capital controls with classical budgetary restraint. In offering a 'constructivist-institutionalist' exp…
Exogenous Shocks or Endogenous Constructions? The Meanings of Wars and Crises
This symposium addresses the role of wars and crises as mechanisms of international change. Over the past two decades, the international system has undergone a number of remarkable transformations, from the end of the Cold War to the emergence of an ongoing ''War on Terror,'' and from the collapse of statist development models to the emergence of a contested-if evolving-neoliberal ''Washington Consensus.'' This volatility exceeds any underlying s…
Constructing Foreign Policy Crises
Over the past century, crises have often driven shifts in U.S. foreign policy, as a liberal tradition has been permissive of varying tendencies to isolationism, pragmatism, or a crusading internationalism. While materialist analyses emphasize the impacts of crises on the capabilities of state and societal agents, they obscure the role of agents in interpreting crises. In this paper, I therefore offer a constructivist analysis, stressing the role …
Differences Beyond Theory
Over the past two decades, one of the main themes in IR theory debates has been a concern for the interplay of agents, structures, and change. In this article, we engage with these debates as they pertain to “the state of the art” by highlighting in broad fashion three “constructivist turns” and their implications for efforts to explain the rise and demise of norms. More specifically, we offer a stylized history of a debate marked by shifting emp…
The benefits of norm ambiguity
Over the past two decades, International Relations scholars have highlighted the importance of efforts by hegemonic states and norm entrepreneurs to foster norm clarity when promoting the establishment, institutionalisation, and internalisation of norms. Yet, such analyses obscure the benefits of norm ambiguity in facilitating consensus, flexibility, and compliance. The authors offer a framework positing that hegemonic and institutional ambiguity…
Law (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Political economy (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Positive economics (5 works)