POL208Y5 Chapter Notes - Chapter all: Scientific Realism, Cognitive Dissonance, Post-Structuralism
Document Summary
Alexander wendt, anarchy is what states make of it: the social. The debate is more concerned today with the extent to which state action is influenced by (cid:858)structure(cid:863) (cid:894)a(cid:374)ar(cid:272)h(cid:455) a(cid:374)d distri(cid:271)utio(cid:374) of power(cid:895) versus (cid:862)process(cid:863) (cid:894)i(cid:374)tera(cid:272)tio(cid:374) a(cid:374)d learning) and institutions. People act toward objects, including other actors, on the basis of the meanings that the objects have for them. The absence or failure of roles makes defining situations and interest more difficult and identity confusion may result. Example, in the united states and the former soviet union, without the cold. War(cid:859)s (cid:373)utual attri(cid:271)utio(cid:374)s of threate(cid:374)ed hostilit(cid:455) to defi(cid:374)e their ide(cid:374)tities, these states seem unsure of what their interests should be. Competitive and individualistic systems are both self-help forms of anarchy in the sense that states do not positively identify the security of self with that of others but instead treat security as the individual responsibility of each.