Konstruktywizm w niemieckiej nauce o stosunkach międzynarodowych
Constructivism in the German Science of International Relations

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present how the German science of international relations uses the assumptions of the constructivist approach. In Germany, constructivism enjoys especial respect – due to the historical events in the local environment, realism was not the dominant trend in science. In the specific strategic culture adopted by the country, this role can be attributed to constructivism, which stresses the importance of intangible factors such as identity, norms and ideas. It was mainly used by researchers in the 1990s, when the united Germany sought an identity and place in the European Union. German constructivist research focuses on the identity of actors. In addition, constructivists in West Germany – in contrast to their Anglo-Saxon counterparts – place stronger emphasis on communication and language. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, research projects related primarily to the identity of the state and its influence on foreign policy. Moreover, constructivists studied the concept of the roles played by individual countries and analysed the impact of changes in the perception of concepts and images of the world on the possibility of the correction of foreign policy. They also studied the impact of institutions as a guarantor of Berlin’s stable position in foreign policy. The pragmatist analysis of foreign policy also focused on the new role of Germany and involved a detailed study of all statements uttered by relevant participants of the discourse.

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