An Analysis Of Constructivism On The Transition Of The Atlantic Alliance

The Atlantic alliance established from the very beginning of the cold war has passed through more than half centuries'life courses, and it has had profound influence on the word pattern and the strategy relations evolution of the great nation . The relations of two great leaders of the alliance also have experienced three different stages with the external environment and internal power balance, from the cold war times of"friendly at the expense of principles"to the post-cold war of"neither friendly nor aloof", finally changing into the present situation of"more and more aloof". This article analyzed the historical vicissitudes of Atlantic alliance from the view of constructivism and attempted to make reasonable explanation to this phenomenon, and then drawn such a conclusion that approval among members would reduce unceasingly and the alliance would become loose gradually.The first part outlined the historical vicissitudes of the Atlantic alliance. The unique historical period-cold war times-produced the European Union. Under the soviet Union's threat as well as under the influence of stronger collective approval of Europe and America, although the alliance has had some problems in the cold war times ,which didn't affect the general situation. The alliance works normally, however, after the cold war, both sides started to seek new threats owing to the vanishing of the original common threats. During the seeking process, both sides came to disagreement and strategy cooperation needs were beginning to reduce. After in particular 911 events and the ending of the Iraqi war, the bilateral contradiction and differences had deepened, the result is that European Union had to face with valid crisis.The second part elaborated the theory of constructivism alliance. Firstly, this part presented the general theory of the constructivism. Constructivism researches international politics from the point of sociology and emphasizes the function of culture,practice, and approval in international exchange. Meanwhile, constructivism considers that nation interaction produces three kinds of non-government cultures, namely Hobbes culture, Locker culture,and Conde culture. Mutual dependence, common destiny, homogeneity and self-discipline play a key role in the process of transformation from Locker culture to Conde culture.Constructivism is an applied theory that applies construction principle to the research of European issues. It can be summarized in one word: the mutual approval has decided establishment,development and change of the alliance. And four factors of collective approval are also the basis of alliance development and change. Such an alliance has the following characteristics: the alliance members has the widely common interests, the union doesn't necessarily aim at any specific nation , the alliance is lasting and stable and has integrated life course.The conclusion applied construction principle alliance theory to the research of the vicissitudes of the Atlantic alliance. In the cold war period, the US and Europe have stronger collective appreciation, including subjectively and objectively mutual dependence and identical destiny, meanwhile, both sides have strong homogeneity as well as self-restraint. All these common interests cause the alliance to be stable in general. After the ending of cold war, such collective approval has obviously reduced, Soviet Union threats have vanished and after that both sides are not able to find out original common threats. In the homogeneous aspect, both sides also appeared disadvantageous to maintain the development of collective approval. And Europe's relative stronger self-restraint in cold war times also has become less with its own increasing power.However, the US was more reluctant to self-restraint owing to the vanishing of main opponent.What's more, 911 events and the Iraqi war are seriously attacking the basis of Atlantic alliance ,namely collective approval .The entire historical vicissitudes process indicats that the collective approval of two sides has become less ,which resulted in the gradual loose of the alliance.The fourth part predicted the future trend of the Atlantic alliance still exists the collective appreciation to some degree, and the unique stability and the durability of the alliance based on the bilateral approval will not immediately disintegrate, but the internal collective approval was still unceasingly reducing. The alliance would break up when collective approval was insufficient to maintain existence of the alliance.However,this process will last for along time. Therefore, the relations of US and Europe will develop in the direction of the non-alliance relations.