the-evolution-of-international-security-studies

constructivisms: norms, identities and narratives 195in those which dealt with the implications of the end of the Cold War,for instance for NATO (Risse-Kappen, 1996), Japan (Katzenstein andOkawara, 1993) or humanitarian interventions (Finnemore, 1996, 2003).Turning to the driving force of great power politics, many of the historicalcase-studies did involve great powers, probably since these have alwaysbeen privileged by traditional ISS. Most Conventional Constructivistswere furthermore American-based, hence probably more likely to adopta great power focus, and to the extent that contemporary events werecovered, they often had a great power component. Although technologywas not usually cast as a driving force in itself, there were several studiesthat dealt with its development, its social constitution and the norms surroundingit, for instance the cases of the non-use of chemical and nuclearweapons (Price, 1995, 1997; Price and Tannenwald, 1996; Tannenwald,1999, 2005).Moving to the substantial claims of Conventional Constructivism, itoffers analysis that attacks traditional ISS, particularly Neorealism, at severaldifferent points. One group of works focused on international norms,particularly those that appear to contravene the assumption of Neorealismand Neoliberalism that states are rational, self-help actors in an anarchicsystem. These studies were usually constituted around a Realist puzzle:why do states accept constraints on their ability to conduct warfare, suchas providing aid for the wounded according to the Geneva Conventions(Finnemore, 1996)? Why are chemical weapons not used, when thesemay be effective, and militaries are prepared to use them (Price, 1995)?Or why is the assassination of political and military leaders consideredinappropriate, even though these might be effective, easy to carry out anda preferable moral alternative to waging war against an entire army orpopulation (W. Thomas, 2000)? These questions, argue Constructivists,cannot be answered by Realist materialist explanations, but only throughan ideational analysis that traces the genesis and evolution of norms. Thenon-use of chemical weapons during the Second World War, for example,was, argues Richard Price (1995), coupled to a constitution of ‘civilised’and ‘uncivilised’ nations. Where the ‘civilised’ found chemical weaponsmorally abhorrent, it was simultaneously their same (constructed) ‘civility’which allowed them to use chemical weapons against ‘non-civilised’peoples.A second group of Constructivist work moved from the level of theinternational system to the foreign policies of particular states or institutions.These studies also point to phenomena which cannot be explainedby Neorealist theories located at the level of the international structure,