Дискурс Пи (Jan 2017)
Discourse of International Relations: Constructivist Paradigm
Abstract
The paper offers a critical review of the studies that explore international relations as a discursive construct and focus on strategic use of language in socially meaningful contexts that determine the shaping and developing of international environment. The constructivist approach to the discourse of international relations is based on understanding nation not as an ontological phenomenon but as a social construct of a communicative nature. Along with this basic interpretation of nation, constructivists theorize about the essence of international relations. The authors of the present review claim that - contrary to widespread belief - the constructivist paradigm does not automatically admit the illusory character of international relations. The results of the review aim to prove that the common assumption for constructionists is the idea of discursive and communicative character of international relations. This idea is expressed by the following statement: to know something about international relations as a real phenomenon means to be able to present or model them. In this process, a special role is ascribed to the media as 'public arenas', which host the fight for means and results of representations and symbolic modelling of international relations. The paper distinguishes two major auspicious directions in discourse analysis of international relations: micro- and macro-oriented.
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