Broadening the Contestation of Norms in International Relations (original) (raw)

A ntje Wiener's A Theory of Contestation is an impressive achievement. Readers of this meticulous undertaking should not be fooled by its conciseness. While a seemingly brief book-length study, it is nevertheless a mighty work that treats the contestation of norms in a comprehensive, persuasive, and detailed fashion. It succeeds in pursuing its analytical, theoretical, normative, and empirical purposes. What follows is a presentation of the types of critiques that seem to be excluded from her analysis, but ones that the book (and its author) I think can speak to. These should not be read as critiques that expose some major flaw in the book, but rather as an invitation for further extension and discussion for how we might grapple with its argument in ways not initially captured by its scope. Wiener does a meticulous job in the book of discussing the importance of access to norm contestation along three dimensions: formal validation, social recognition, and cultural validation. In her words, "the key point, which A Theory of Contestation wishes to highlight, is that access to these three dimensions is not equally shared among all stakeholders." 1 Indeed, this point of her theory of contestation is carefully focused. Yet while she engages the critical constructivist focus on norms and their contestation, I do not see much critique of norms themselves in Wiener's theory-norms being problematized because of the norms' exclusionary features when they are formed (within particularly communities), but universally applied thereafter. Let me provide two sets of examples regarding strident forms of contestationresistance and even rebellion-of and against norms. Wiener situates her theory The author would like to thank Jonathan Havercroft for organizing this symposium and for the roundtable that preceded it. He thanks those who participated in the roundtable and this symposium for enriching his understanding of the text, and especially Professor Wiener for her provocative and rich book. 1. Antje Wiener, A Theory of Contestation (London: Springer, 2014), 5.