The Bridge-Building Projects in International Relations Theory — Exploring the Synthesis between Rationalism and Constructivism
Author: Tahua Mo
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
Exploring the bridge-building projects between the islands of theories inInternational Relations research is to build a communicative and dialectic dialoguebridge among these international relations theories. Since the Third Great Debate,the bridge-building projects have become trendy; there were three bridge-buildingprojects: a bridge between rationalism and reflectivism, a bridge amongconstructivisms, and a bridge between rationalism and constructivism. Along withthe Fourth Great Debate, the Rationalism-Constructivism debate, a bridge is beingbuilt to synthesise them all. There still remain some injunctions that push in thedirection of bridge-building projections: one lane or multi-lane bridges; one or morebridges and constructivism’s epistemological pluralism; the debate is in itsphilosophical ground, and empirical research for the theoretical validity, and thepossibility of theoretic dialogue and synthesis.