A Study On Friedrich V. Kratochwil's Norm-oriented Constructivism

The thesis researches on Friedrich V. Kratochwil's Norm-oriented Constructivism. By systemically and comprehensively dissertating the essential thoughts of the Norm-oriented Constructivism as well as comparing with the thoughts of Onuf's Rule-oriented Constructivism and Wendt's Constructivism, the thesis illuminates the originality, features and significance of the theory. Furthermore, the scope of the theory and the significance of case study can be analyzed.Norm-oriented Constructivism takes norms as the ontology. It believes that only when we understand the norms can we understand the world and meaning of action. The theory focuses on the change of international system, and believes it refers to the change of norms constitutive of international system. The domestic level and international level are equally important in the process of understanding changes. The change of domestic norms spreading to other nations will affect their domestic situation. If the norms changes affect the foreign policies and notions, the pattern of interaction among nations and the constitutive norms of international system will also be influenced. Furthermore, the international system will change if the critical even all of the constitutive norms changes.Meanwhile, Norm-oriented Constructivism also focuses on researching the means of norms affecting the actor's action. Because of giving the meaning to the objectivity, the norms simplify the complexity of choice-situation. Moreover, the background of norms allows actors to communicate with each other. However, the most important means of norms affecting the action is practical reasoning. In the argument among the actors, they have to resort to norms in order to contest through practical reasoning. The final decision will be made after the reasoning process. The most prominent originality and feature of Norm-oriented Constructivism is its analysis focus on the process of communication and practical reasoning.These two parts are close-knit. The changing process of international system will necessarily accompany the arguments between the new and old norms, as well as the scope for the former. Norms will affect the decision through practical reasoning in each specific argument. These two parts are both derived from norm ontological foundation of norms: the former studies how the actors'practices affect the change of international system norms by annotating the history, while the latter analyzes the specific means how norms affect practice.The thesis compares Norm-oriented Constructivism with the thoughts of Onuf's Rule-oriented Constructivism and Wendt's Constructivism after discussing the essential thoughts of the theory systemically. It is found that Norm-oriented Constructivism has unique value in the theories of Constructivism.Finally, the thesis concludes the originalities of Norm-oriented Constructivism: practical reasoning and taking the domestic level as important as the international; analysis of the scope for the theory of how the norms affect actions: the argument in the Third-party Context; the value of case studies, for example, the argument between Gorbachev and Bush: how Soviet and the U.S.A face the Eastern Europe revolution in 1989; the illumination of Norm-oriented Constructivism.