Reading history through constructivist eyes

Desde el final de la Guerra Fría, se ha producido un resurgir del interés por la historia por parte de los estudiosos de Relaciones Internacionales. Los constructivistas han estado a la cabeza de este redescubrimiento, recurriendo a la investigación histórica para destacar el significado contingente y la evolución de una miríada de prácticas internacionales, procesos y estructuras sociales. Sin embargo, ¿en qué medida está este trabajo guiado por una filosofía de la historia distinta, sea explícita o implícita?, ¿leen los constructivistas la historia de una manera particular? Y si así fuera, ¿cuáles son los contornos de su enfoque? Este artículo aborda estas cuestiones, argumentando que la historia constructivista es esencialmente “skinneriana” en naturaleza, excluyéndola por una parte de la historia realista-materialista y, por otra, de la historia de las ideas. Para ilustrar este enfoque, terminaré con una breve lectura constructivista de la crisis constitucional que asoló al Imperio español tras la invasión napoleónica de 1808Since the end of the Cold War there has been a renaissance in the study of history by International Relations scholars. Constructivists have been at the forefront of this rediscovery, turning to historical inquiry to highlight the contingent meaning and evolution of a myriad of international practices, processes, and social structures. To what extent, however, is this work informed by a distinctive philosophy of history, explicit or implicit? Do constructivists read history in a particular way? If so, what are the contours of their approach? This article takes up these questions, arguing that constructivist history is essentially ‘Skinnerian’ in nature, marking it off from realist-materialist histories, on the one hand, and histories of ideas, on the other. To illustrate this approach I end with a brief constructivist reading of the constitutional crisis that beset the Spanish Empire in the aftermath of the Napoleonic invasion and usurpation in 180

Leyendo la historia con una mirada constructivista

Desde el final de la Guerra Fría, se ha producido un resurgir del interés por la historia por parte de los estudiosos de Relaciones Internacionales. Los constructivistas han estado a la cabeza de este redescubrimiento, recurriendo a la investigación histórica para destacar el significado contingente y la evolución de una miríada de prácticas internacionales, procesos y estructuras sociales. Sin embargo, ¿en qué medida está este trabajo guiado por una filosofía de la historia distinta, sea explícita o implícita?, ¿leen los constructivistas la historia de una manera particular? Y si así fuera, ¿cuáles son los contornos de su enfoque? Este artículo aborda estas cuestiones, argumentando que la historia constructivista es esencialmente “skinneriana” en naturaleza, excluyéndola por una parte de la historia realista-materialista y, por otra, de la historia de las ideas. Para ilustrar este enfoque, terminaré con una breve lectura constructivista de la crisis constitucional que asoló al Imperio español tras la invasión napoleónica de 1808

Stretching the IR theoretical spectrum on Irish neutrality: a critical social constructivist framework

In a 2006 International Political Science Review article, entitled "Choosing to Go It Alone: Irish Neutrality in Theoretical and Comparative Perspective," Neal G. Jesse argues that Irish neutrality is best understood through a neoliberal rather than a neorealist international relations theory framework. This article posits an alternative "critical social constructivist" framework for understanding Irish neutrality. The first part of the article considers the differences between neoliberalism and social constructivism and argues why critical social constructivism's emphasis on beliefs, identity, and the agency of the public in foreign policy are key factors explaining Irish neutrality today. Using public opinion data, the second part of the article tests whether national identity, independence, ethnocentrism, attitudes to Northern Ireland, and efficacy are factors driving public support for Irish neutrality. The results show that public attitudes to Irish neutrality are structured along the dimensions of independence and identity, indicating empirical support for a critical social constructivist framework of understanding of Irish neutrality

Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain

ience, this issue p. eaap8757 Structured Abstract INTRODUCTION Brain disorders may exhibit shared symptoms and substantial epidemiological comorbidity, inciting debate about their etiologic overlap. However, detailed study of phenotypes with different ages of onset, severity, and presentation poses a considerable challenge. Recently developed heritability methods allow us to accurately measure correlation of genome-wide common variant risk between two phenotypes from pools of different individuals and assess how connected they, or at least their genetic risks, are on the genomic level. We used genome-wide association data for 265,218 patients and 784,643 control participants, as well as 17 phenotypes from a total of 1,191,588 individuals, to quantify the degree of overlap for genetic risk factors of 25 common brain disorders. RATIONALE Over the past century, the classification of brain disorders has evolved to reflect the medical and scientific communities' assessments of the presumed root causes of clinical phenomena such as behavioral change, loss of motor function, or alterations of consciousness. Directly observable phenomena (such as the presence of emboli, protein tangles, or unusual electrical activity patterns) generally define and separate neurological disorders from psychiatric disorders. Understanding the genetic underpinnings and categorical distinctions for brain disorders and related phenotypes may inform the search for their biological mechanisms. RESULTS Common variant risk for psychiatric disorders was shown to correlate significantly, especially among attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia. By contrast, neurological disorders appear more distinct from one another and from the psychiatric disorders, except for migraine, which was significantly correlated to ADHD, MDD, and Tourette syndrome. We demonstrate that, in the general population, the personality trait neuroticism is significantly correlated with almost every psychiatric disorder and migraine. We also identify significant genetic sharing between disorders and early life cognitive measures (e.g., years of education and college attainment) in the general population, demonstrating positive correlation with several psychiatric disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bipolar disorder) and negative correlation with several neurological phenotypes (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and ischemic stroke), even though the latter are considered to result from specific processes that occur later in life. Extensive simulations were also performed to inform how statistical power, diagnostic misclassification, and phenotypic heterogeneity influence genetic correlations. CONCLUSION The high degree of genetic correlation among many of the psychiatric disorders adds further evidence that their current clinical boundaries do not reflect distinct underlying pathogenic processes, at least on the genetic level. This suggests a deeply interconnected nature for psychiatric disorders, in contrast to neurological disorders, and underscores the need to refine psychiatric diagnostics. Genetically informed analyses may provide important "scaffolding" to support such restructuring of psychiatric nosology, which likely requires incorporating many levels of information. By contrast, we find limited evidence for widespread common genetic risk sharing among neurological disorders or across neurological and psychiatric disorders. We show that both psychiatric and neurological disorders have robust correlations with cognitive and personality measures. Further study is needed to evaluate whether overlapping genetic contributions to psychiatric pathology may influence treatment choices. Ultimately, such developments may pave the way toward reduced heterogeneity and improved diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders

Obligation through practice

Despite the many calls for bridge building between the fields of International Law and International Relations, genuinely integrative studies are few and far between. Lawyers leaven their writings with a dash of real politic here and utility maximizing there; International Relations scholars enlist the authority of legal interpretation and harvest insights into legal reasoning. But these are seldom exercises in genuine dialog, aimed at producing new theoretical perspectives, views that are more than the sum of their parts, which promise to advance understanding in both fields. Legitimacy and Legality in International Law is refreshing in this regard. Brunnee and Toope mine two complimentary strands of international legal and international relations theory to generate an ‘interactional’ theory of international law. They dig deep enough to grasp the complexities of each strand, and produce an artfully integrated amalgam of Lon Fuller’s approach to law (transplanted into the international arena) and constructivist international relations