Communitarian International Relations The Epistemic Foundations of International Relations

• Main Author: Adler, Emanuel
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Routledge 2005; Taylor and Francis; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Series: New International Relations
• Subjects: Collective behaviour; Communitarianism; Constructivism; International relations; International Relations Theory; Philosophy; Politics & International Relations; epistemic; Common Moral Purpose; Barcelona Process; ABM; Arms Control Ideas; peaceful; Nuclear Arms Control; security; Cognitive Evolution; Security Communities; Market Reserve; Dependable Expectations; Oslo Process; Security Community Building; collective; Muslim World; Pluralistic Security Communities; Domestic Computer Industry; Normative IR; Normative IR Theory; change; evolution; community; ABM System; Palestinian Authority; Mediterranean Identity; Peripheral Devices; cognitive; Epistemic Communities; Medium Sized Computers; IR Theory; North Atlantic Security Community; Arms Controllers; pluralistic; communities
• ISBN: 0415335914; 9780415335911; 0415335906; 9780415335904
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203022443

In Emanuel Adler's distinctive constructivist approach to international relations theory, international practices evolve in tandem with collective knowledge of the material and social worlds. This book - comprising afresh selection of his journal publications, a substantial new introduction, three previously unpublished articles - points IR constructivism in a novel direction, characterized as 'communitarian'. Adler's synthesis does not herald the end of the nation-state; nor does it suggest that agency is unimportant in international life. Rather, it argues that what mediates between individual and state agency and social structures are communities of practice, which are the wellspring and repositories of collective meanings and social practices. The concept of communities of practice casts new light on epistemic communities and security communities, helping to explain why certain ideas congeal into human practices and others do not, and which social mechanisms can facilitate the emergence of normatively better communities.