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This article contributes to ongoing debates on security community-building in international relations (IR) by focusing on the productive role of discursive contestation in this process. It builds on recent work associated with the "practice" turn, discourse theory, and the study of security communities in the Global South to propose a new understanding of how the diversification of security governance impacts security community-building. The article develops an original discourse-based approach that conceptualizes security community-building as a polysemic, omnidirectional, and contested process in which social agents debate the meaning of security and the boundaries of community. It applies this approach to the case of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to show how contestation over the organization's identity as a security community "in the making" takes place along two dimensions. First, different (and potentially incompatible) versions of the community compete for dominance. Second, contestation also unfolds "internally," among social agents who agree on which version ought to prevail. I illustrate this part of the argument through an examination of the debate over ASEAN's identity as a "people-centered" community. The demonstration is supported by the analysis of "texts" enacted in the discursive field where the security community is talked into existence, as well as interviews with practitioners.

A review essay on books by (1) Jan Jindy Pettman, Worlding Women: A Feminist International Politics (London: Routledge, 1996); & (2) Sandra Whitworth, Feminism and International Relations ([revised edition] London: Macmillan, 1994). These works are reviewed in the context of feminism in international relations (IR) & international political economy (IPE), as examples of the value of multidisciplinary approaches to these issues. Pettman's focus on the links between gender issues in IPE, the gendered politics of identities & of peace & war is contrasted to Whitworth's analysis of gender & IPE in international institutions. Both books defend claims of the male gendering of IR theory & practice & explain women's subordination in terms of the gendered nature of the global political economy. Both are criticized for identifying, but then not advocating, social & political change to improve the situation of women & fulfill the radical potential of IR & IPE. Pettman is praised for addressing key issues & avoiding entaglement in tired methodological debates; Whitworth confronts them head-on. It is concluded that feminist IPE's potential will not be realized without substantive ethical justifications, which receive little attention in these two works. 4 References. T. Arnold

This article presents social construction as a research framework, rather than an explanatory theory in constructivism, to outline different research strategies. Varieties of constructivism thus far conceived in international relations prefer cleavages where scholars are regarded as thin/thick, conventional/critical, or mainstream/radical. In contrast, I introduce a new landscape of social construction to show unique mechanisms for socially constructing international politics. The new landscape varies on two dimensions. The first, source of socialization, asks whether scholars treat social context as fixed in discrete, observable forms or as fluid in indiscrete, shifting arrangements. The second dimension, focus of analysis, asks whether scholars primarily study social structures, social subjects, or some interaction of the two. The dimensions make visible a multitude of research strategies with implications for the stability of social processes and the potential for causal analysis. Moreover, within this landscape, the article focuses on four processes of social construction—aggregating, assembling, internalizing, and performing—as seen inductively through examining prominent constructivist projects. Disaggregating the many processes avoids the misuse of social construction as a catchall mechanism. Finally, the article applies the select processes to the social construction of international norms to better grasp the relative payoffs of constructivist IR scholarship for research and teaching.

In this book, leading international human rights scholars take the familiar idea that 'everything changed' after 9/11 as a starting point for the first critical analysis of continuity and change in the international human rights regime in the 21st century. They analyze it from various levels of the human rights regime, including compliance and violations, normative and political discourses, legal and institutional developments at the national, regional and international levels, and developments in the non-state sector. Written from diverse methodological perspectives, the volume provides rich and varied insights on vital questions concerning the resiliency, weaknesses, and prospects of human rights today.

The interface between psychology and politics has been an area of sustained inquiry for several decades. More recently, the nexus between psychopolitical factors and international politics--linkages among biopolitics, political psychology, elite analysis, foreign affairs, and world politics--has been explored. This volume reviews and assesses the m

AbstractThe 'protection of civilians' mandate in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations fulfils a critical role in realising broader protection objectives, which have in recent years become an important focus of international relations and international law. The concepts of the 'protection of civilians' constructed by the humanitarian, human rights and peacekeeping communities have evolved somewhat separately, resulting in disparate understandings of the associated normative bases, substance and responsibilities. If UN peacekeepers are to effectively provide physical protection to civilians under threat of violence, it is necessary to untangle this conceptual and normative confusion. The practical expectations of the use of force to protect civilians must be clear, and an overarching framework is needed to facilitate the spectrum of actors working in a complementary way towards the common objectives of the broader protection agenda.

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