Constructivism meets critical realism

Explaining Pakistan’s state practice in the aftermath of 9/11

Bibliographic Data

ID6060980
AuthorsNazya Fiaz (National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume20
Issue2
Pages491-515
Publication date2014-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of International Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-0661 • E-ISSN: 1460-3713
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1354066112466572
OpenAlexW2128065747
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited57

This article investigates the theoretical added-value of critical realist incursions into International Relations constructivism. While constructivism focuses on providing multi-causal explanations, its conceptual horizon and subsequent methodological framework fundamentally obscure and limit the opportunity to conceptualize social dialectic and multi-causality in world politics. In this respect, a critical realist meta-theory can provide constructivism with a greatly expanded conceptual framework that transcends material–ideational divisions, and a framework that is able to envision more clearly the process of social dialectic. Second, critical realism affords a methodological diversity that can withstand simultaneous constructivist investigations into the material, agential, ideational, or structural. Using the synthesis of critical realism and constructivism, I illustrate by way of example by employing Pakistan’s participation in the ‘war on terror’ as a case study. While constructivism can show that Pakistan’s role in the war on terror was preceded by a legitimizing narrative, it is a critical realist depth analysis that sheds new light on how a complex social reality was achieved through the convergence of multi-causal explanatory factors

Critical theory · Dialectic · Epistemology · International relations · International relations theory · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Realism · Social constructivism · Social science · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

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