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Argues that too much debate on European integration has focused on which institutions matter in the integration process & not on how they have effects. It is contended that a sociological & social constructivist understanding of institutions as constitutive can significantly broaden the methodological tools available to the study of integration. The approach will also help in exploring how, or indeed, whether, integration is affecting fundamental actor identities, & not simply constraining strategy or behavior. Adapted from the source document.

In recent years, constructivist thinking about global politics has brought a breath of fresh auto international relations. By exploring questions of identity and interest, constructivist scholars have articulated an important corrective to the methodological individualism and materialism that have come to dominate much of IR. As the books under review indicate, constructivism has also succeeded in demonstrating its empirical value—documenting a new and important causal role for norms and social structure in global politics. Theoretically, however, the approach remains underspecified. In particular, constructivists typically fail to explain the origins of such structures, how they change over time, how their effects vary cross nationally, or the mechanisms through which they constitute states and individuals. Missing is the substantive theory and attention to agency that will provide answers to such puzzles, as well as ensure the development of a productive research program.

In recent years, students of regimes and norms have paid greater attention to domestic politics. Both liberals and constructivists are `unpacking' the state in ways that further our understanding of how international norms work their effects in the domestic arena. A crucial next step is for adherents of these two schools to engage in dialogue. This article contributes to such an enterprise by developing scope conditions that predict when norms will have the constraining or constitutive effects favored, respectively, by liberals and constructivists. I make a distinction between compliance with norms and the diffusion mechanisms empowering them domestically, explaining variance in the latter with an institutional argument that captures key dynamics — rationalist or social constructivist — portrayed in other prominent accounts. The argument is illustrated by considering the domestic impact of norms embedded in the European human rights regime.

Der Autor analysiert den Wandel der russischen Außenpolitik nach dem Zusammenbruch der UdSSR sowohl im intenationalen Kontext als auch unter innenpolitischen Gesichtspunkten. Die Politik Rußlands gegenüber Europa und den übrigen GUS-Staaten einerseits sowie die weltanschaulichen Positionen der außenpolitischen Entscheidungsträger, die außenpolitischen Entscheidungsprozesse und die Diskussion über die nationalen Interessen Rußlands andererseits werden in diesem Zusammenhang beleuchtet. Während die äußeren Rahmenbedingungen eine Ambivalenz der russischen Außenpolitik zur Folge haben, die je nach Situation eher reformorientiert oder rückwärtsgewandt sein kann, läßt der - letztlich entscheidende - innenpolitische Kontext eher einen Bruch mit der zaristischen und sowjetischen Tradtion erwarten. Die Analyse basiert teilweise auf Interviews des Autors mit Beamten des russischen Außenministeriums und früheren Mitgliedern der Internationalen Abteilung des ZK der KPdSU. (BIOst-srt)