Importance Of Norms In International Relations

Essay one

Do ‘Norms’ really matter in contemporary international relations?

The purpose of this essay is to establish the importance of ‘Norms’ in International Relations.

What is Norms?

When we think about norms the first thing that came to my mind is what do we mean by norms? There are thousand of definitions about norms. I think norm means certain believes and behaviours that is practiced by the people of a state. For an example in Bangladesh people practice few norms such as respect elders, love youngers and many more. Norms is something for which if you don’t practiced it you won’t be punished by law but people of your society will see as a crime. Philpott argues that norms can be defined as “rules viewed as obligatory by the broad majority of people living under them” which are usually or customarily practised. Kratochwil and Keohane concur that a norm is a standard of behaviour defined in terms of rights and obligations. That explains that norms is something that decides some boundaries in society but if you break it you will not be punished. Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink (1991) explains that there are also several different types of norms that exist. Regulatory norms define what behaviours states can or cannot do. Constitutive norms set up new actors, behaviours, or interests. Prescriptive norms prescribe actions or non actions that are to be taken in certain situations. This last type of norm is usually overlooked for various reasons.

International relations are an inherently normative subject. The concept of international relation and the public good includes a traditional concern of national and international security. States have organized their foreign relations around certain key and shared principles that leads both international security and advanced common interests. States has war policy, sustainable relationship, common interests. Most of the state done this without noticing any international governance. To have a Governance without a particular government is the main concern of the underlying tendency to the anarchy . Most of the states’ search for shared institutions and mores—governing norms—has been especially marked in the 20th century, the modern international relationship era. In international relationship, constructive norms usually grouped into few things such as postmodernism, reflectivism and poststructuralism. Within the circle of constructivism it works in international politics via shared ideas, thoughts, interactions, interests and identities. Constructivists aiming to increase the understandings and explanations of state behaviour and focusing on the impacts of identities and norms depends on. A constructive norms indicates a lot of things such as collective understanding what 's make behavioural claims on actors. This concept is the foundation for Wendt’s claim that ‘anarchy is what states make of it’.[Wendt