Klotz: Norms Reconstituting Interests

Klotz, Audie. Norms Reconstituting Interests: Global Racial Equality and U.S. Sanctions against South Africa. International Organization 49 (Summer 1995): 451-478.

The example of the norm of racial equality provides the driving variable for sanctions to be imposed on South Africa by all major international players with no regard for material losses.

It was not always the case that the norm of racial equality promoted action on the part of all of the world’s major powers to denounce the apartheid situation in South Africa. While there were efforts on the part of UN nations to denounce the practice, these did not amount to all out restriction of trade with the southern-most African nation. The US imposed sanctions on South Africa in 1986.

“This case study illustrates empirically one of the fundamental theoretical claims of a constructivist theory of international relations: norms are constitutive components of both the internationals system and states’ interests” (460).

The paper outlines schematically different ways in that norms and interests affect state behavior from the perspective of different theoretical approaches.

“Constructivist theory claims that states are socially constructed…” (477).

“Constructivist theory also claims that agents and structures reconsittute4 each other in a n iterative process but thus far has retained the traditional assumption of states as units…Constructivist theory argues that global norms are part of the explanation for the definition of state and individual interests. The result is a reformulated research agenda that illuminates the independent role of norms in determining actors’ identities and interests” (478).