Anarchy is What States Make of It

Anarchy is What States Make of It
Question 1A
Anarchy is what states make of it. "500 British nuclear weapons are less threatening to the US than 5 North Korea nuclear weapons." These sentences were echoed by Alexander Wendt to explain our reality. The statement means that nuclear weapons don’t make sense unless we look at the social context behind the United States and its relations with North Korea and Britain. Alexander Wendt explains that the social context can change in world politics. The theoretical framework used is the constructivist approach (Constructivism) to international relations theory.
The constructivist approach to International relations theory is a school of thought that emphasizes the role of the observer in understanding the world and the role of the actor in shaping the world. Instead of focusing on the actions of states, the constructivist approach focuses on the thoughts, beliefs, and expectations of individuals, which shape the actions of states. This approach to international relations theory has been mainly influenced by the philosophy of phenomenology and the social psychology of attribution theory and cognitive psychology. Constructivism focuses on the relationship between the social context and the behavior of individuals. Constructivism holds that the interaction of the social context and the behavior of individuals is both complex and difficult to capture. International relations are created by and are the result of the interaction of many factors, including the social context and the behavior of individuals. For example, from Wendt’s statement, the social enmity between the US and North Korea represents the shared ideas and beliefs between the two countries whereas the US and North Korea are the actors with the ability to change or reinforce the existing structure (Theys, 2017). This shift or reinforcement is ultimately determined by both states' beliefs. The social relationship can shift to one of friendship if these thoughts and concepts change.
The realism approach to anarchy, however, disagrees with constructivism. A realism-based approach to international relations theory emphasizes that the states that compose the international system are major actors, who often have conflicting objectives, and are therefore unable to act in unison to achieve those objectives. This is because the states are not just separate actors but are also separate political systems, with different political systems making different decisions, even when they share the same values and objectives. T In contrast to the constructivist approach, realism does not deny that the world is a complex place. Instead, it emphasizes that how the world is structured help shape the behavior of people, whether they are the statesmen making decisions or the citizens reacting to the decisions made.
The constructivism and the realism approach of international relations theory explain the view of international relations differently. The constructivist approach focuses on ideas and perceptions while the realism approach explains that states only see competition with each other. Both the approaches make good arguments and both have their weaknesses when it comes to answering dilemmas.
References
Theys, S. (2017). Constr...