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2021, Academia Letters
This article sets out to explain why the narrative of the Transaqua project should be understood prior to any analysis and why it is appropriate to think this initiative in terms of the constructivist approach to international relations. For several decades, the issue of the rescue of Lake Chad by the waters of the Congo has dominated both the African regional universe and the international chronicle. It is also the backdrop for several scientific publications covering various fields. In International Relations, the issue has been explored more under the anchor of classical theoretical approaches. Very little research has attempted to address the initiative according to the analytical logics of critical theoretical approaches such as constructivism – which is powerful for its multi-causal explanation of social phenomena, its emphasis on social context, intersubjective arrangements, the social construction of national interest and the constitutive nature of initiatives and actors.
International Journal of Water Resources Development
Transaqua: power, political change and the transnational politics of a water megaproject2020 •
Chapter in book, Regimes of Responsibility in Africa Genealogies, Rationalities and Conflictsm ed. by Benjamin Rubbers and Alessandro Jedlowskim Berghahn books
The Use(fulness) of Discourses of 'Responsibility' on the DRC's 'Sovereign Frontier'2020 •
2006 •
By raising the question of what made constructivism possible the paper discusses the puzzle and promises of constructivist scholarschip in IR. It is argued that the communicative style which coined constructivism as a movement provides the key. Two puzzles are the focus, first, a lack of epistemological overlap, secondly, a disciplinary culture of consecutive debates which reached their high point of non-communication with the so-called Third Debate. However, while the constructivist movement gathered influence as a reference frame in the late 1990s, it is neither genuine to international relations theory nor does it originate in the 1990s. Why and how did constructivism manage to bring such a diverse group of scholars to one table? Section 2 of the paper develops the argument and introduces the concept of framing to understand the puzzle of conversation in IR. Section 3 recalls the emergence of constructivism, identifies the theoretical discussions and the significant conceptual moves. Section 4 summarizes the value- added and flags ‘norms’ research as the core of constructivist political science.
European Journal of International Relations
A reconstruction of constructivism in International Relations2000 •
In order to avoid both theoretically eclectic and redundant approaches to constructivism, this article proposes one possible and coherent reconstruction of constructivism understood as a reflexive meta-theory. This reconstruction starts by taking seriously the double sociological and interpretivist turn of the social sciences. Based on ‘double hermeneutics’, constructivism is perhaps best understood by distinguishing its position on the level of observation, the level of action proper, and the relationship between these two levels. On the basis of this distinction, the article argues that constructivism is epistemologically about the social construction of knowledge and ontologically about the construction of social reality. It furthermore asks us to combine a social theory of knowledge with an intersubjective, not an individualist, theory of action. Finally, the analysis of power is central to understanding the reflexive link between the two levels of observation and action. The argument is embedded in a contextualization where constructivism is seen as inspired by ‘reflexive modernity’, as well as more directly by the end of the Cold War.
sachajournals.com
CRITICAL THEORY APPLIED: THE INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING EXPERIENCE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGODespite growing scholarly criticism in IR and various strands of research like practice theory, governance and governmentality, the failed state is alive and well in Congo analysis. Building on a performative understanding of the state as an effect of practice, this paper enacts the Congo in three ways: Using interview material gathered in Goma and New York, I first argue that one reading of this material sees foreign humanitarians and peacekeepers engaged in enacting the Congo as a failed state. A second reading, by contrast, sees them performing it as an entity which deals with the intricacies of human nature, collective interaction and the role of history. After highlighting the fact that both of these performances can usefully be made to undercut the seeming inescapability of the state norm in International Relations, I argue that doing IR ethnographically is in itself a performative practice. The third performance of the Congo offered here is thus the one made by the analyst himself - an ambiguous performance which strives to bring the state back out to render continued intervention in the Congo harder to justify.
The Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) and the Great Lakes of Africa (GLA), often characterized as arenas of civil conflict, of displaced populations and of economic crisis, have seen some of the bloodiest conflicts since the end of WWII, where the colonial plunder has been replaced by the privatization of pillage by ‘independent’ African nations! However, this picture does not reveal the feats of a continent that rising high. Africans are shading off the shackles of tyranny and poverty and realizing rapid growth rates and enhanced governance. However, there remains a lot to state building in the GHA & GLA. International peace-building interventions are increasingly focused on rebuilding and re-configuring the state as a central feature in peace and development interventions, further consolidated by the growing international concern about weak, fragile, or failing states that also threaten global security. in a post-Washington Consensus era, the crucial role states has made state-building a priority, focused on social consensus, in which citizens sanction the legitimacy of the state. Structural Functionalism offers concepts of manifest functions (recognized and intended consequences of a social system) and latent functions (unintended consequences of a social system) of the state. Nevertheless, what is to be done to build states? The presentation aims to direct IAR actions to work synergistically towards research in building democratic rules and institutions, coupled with public policy transformation, community based conflict management, leadership training and mentoring, diplomacy & martial action, alternatives framework for economic management, certification of natural resources & stemming resource plunder. The conclusion underpins the fact that in political reforms, state building is either conventionalised or sterilized on terrain of theory and often vacuously formalized on the ground of practice. It enters African society in relatively abstract and plain form, yet is expected to land itself to immediate and vital socio-political experience. It suggests itself, seems within reach only to elude, and appears readily practicable only to resist realization. Key words: state building, conflict management, democratic rules & institutions, resilience
Richardson Institute for Peace and Conflict …
Transnational Actors and the Conflict in the Great Lakes Region of Africa2009 •
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment
Deconstructing Power Dynamics and Prevailing Discourses in Hydropolitics: The Case of the Sixaola River Basin2021 •
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Household Air Pollution Is Associated with Chronic Cough but Not Hemoptysis after Completion of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Treatment in Adults, Rural Eastern Democratic Republic of CongoJournal of Radiography and Radiation Sciences
A Survey of Diagnostic X-ray room design and shielding Integrity of Lead Aprons in a State in North-Eastern Nigeria2020 •
2019 IEEE 58th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)
Robustness Of Stochastic Learning Dynamics To Player Heterogeneity In Games2019 •
Current Issues in Molecular Biology
“Losing the Brakes”—Suppressed Inhibitors Triggering Uncontrolled Wnt/ß-Catenin Signaling May Provide a Potential Therapeutic Target in Elderly Acute Myeloid Leukemia2023 •
Metrologia
Final report on APMP regional key comparison APMP.L-K6: Calibration of ball plate and hole plate2014 •
2015 •
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences
Patients’ quest for recognition and continuity in health care: time for a new research agenda?2019 •
Human Reproduction Update
The importance of folate, zinc and antioxidants in the pathogenesis and prevention of subfertility2006 •
Gynecologic Oncology
Antibody Levels against α-Galactosyl Epitopes in Sera of Patients with Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions and Early Invasive Cervical Carcinoma1997 •
Fertility and Sterility
Terine Fibroids Are Characterized by an Altered Redox Balance, Favoring a Pro-Oxidant State2015 •
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Micro-computed tomography of teeth as an alternative way to detect and analyse vitamin D deficiency2019 •
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Pressure dependence of Ms-T curve in GdMn21992 •
1988 •
PLOS ONE
Modulation of Gene Expression in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae Exposed to Bronchoalveolar Fluid2009 •
Prospectiva universitaria
Los ingresos petroleros y el crecimiento económico en Ecuador (2000-2015)2019 •