Motive versus Intent

This weeks readings dealt with the concept of where, how (or even if) ideas impact International Relations and defining what it is an “idea” is. There was also discussion of whether interests, ideas, or both impact the realm of International Relations.  This is a continuation of the discussion introduced under constructivist theory as to whether or not institutions (and the ideas that underpin them) are driven by motive or intent. I found the most clear and concise discussion was that conducted by Dr. Jackson in his online lecture.

This is an idea we recently explored in my other class this term, but looked at in a different approach regarding the extent to which the creation of international institutions and organizations are purely rational, with states calculating potential outcomes and pursuing those outcomes they feel provides the best opportunity for their state, given the constraints and opportunities available or using norms based, inter-subjective ideas of what is right to do.

An excellent example of this is the creation of the United Nations following the end of World War II. US President Franklin Roosevelt, prior to his death, and then President Harry Truman, very much saw the United Nations as an institution based on ideas, the idea that great powers had an obligation to each other and the rest of the world’s states to prevent and possibly even actively intervene in the event state-state aggression threatened. They did not see this organization as what was most likely to succeed (i.e. motivational) but rather what was believed to be the right thing to do given their power in the world (i.e. intentional) and the destruction of both World Wars.

From the interests side, we had the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, who saw the UN as a place to better advance or at least defend its interests against what it saw as the ideological hegemony of the democratic, capitalist Western great powers.  The USSR very much had a subjective state of mind and its decision to join and then later when and how to participate was based on its preferences at any given time and its assessment of the situation.

So we can see clearly in the United Nations how both ideas and interest can exist simultaneously, with one international organization being both a community and a rational institution.