ABSTRACT
Whether language is able to describe our environment objectively or whether, by contrast, it actually produces this reality is generally contested. In particular, the ‘third debate’ in International Relations (IR) is characterised by an intense dispute over the significance of language. Depending on the specific positions of any author – either on the side of the ‘moderates’ or on the side of ‘post-positivist constructivists’ – the relevance of language is conceived differently. Radical (or post-positivist) constructivism bases its research programme on language as the key to understanding the social construction of reality (cf. Shapiro 1981; Der Derian and Shapiro 1989; Adler 1997). Our aim here is to elaborate in greater detail the insights generated by such approaches and to offer, at the same time, a new contribution to discursive analytical strategies in IR. While until now discourse analyses has mainly asked what is constructed through the use of language, we will also ask how reality is constructed.
