Pointers on answering Chapter 9 case study questions

1. Critically analyse the difference between a realist and a constructivist approach to the War on Covid-19.

2. What is the added value of a constructivist analysis of the War on Covid-19?

To answer these questions, it may help you to think through the epistemological/ontological dimensions of each theory, as this pertains to the core analytical focus points for each. For realists this pertains predominantly to the state as the main actor in the international and thus to its ontological status. As you will recall, some strands of realism employ a black-box theory of states, arguing that their ontology (the nature of states) and thus their behaviour is defined independent of regional cultural or economic differences. Thus, realist analyses of the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing response policies are likely to highlight national interests of states as a key motivator for their policies. The closure of national borders under the guise of the pandemic is a prominent example on this front. The starting point for social constructivist analyses of international politics tends to be located at the epistemological end of the spectrum, asking how particular entities are rendered meaningful and thus (linguistically) produced. A social constructivist analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic is thus likely to begin with the question: what meaning have policy makers and the general public attached to Coivd-19 and why? This will require a close analysis of the public language used to describe the virus to scrutinize a) how it has been constructed (shaped) as an element of international relations that requires response, and b) what kinds of policies a particular narration about the virus (think here of the language of war) makes possible – legally, politically, and normatively.