Papers by Christian Weber
BMC Palliative Care, 2017
Background: Healthcare legislation in European countries is similar in many respects. Most import... more Background: Healthcare legislation in European countries is similar in many respects. Most importantly, the framework of informed consent determines that physicians have the duty to provide detailed information about available therapeutic options and that patients have the right to refuse measures that contradict their personal values. However, when it comes to end-of-life decision-making a number of differences exist in the more specific regulations of individual countries. These differences and how they might nevertheless impact patient's choices will be addressed in the current debate.
The primary objective of this article is to theorise transformations of Western order
in a manne... more The primary objective of this article is to theorise transformations of Western order
in a manner that does not presuppose a fixed understanding of ‘the West’ as a preconstituted
political space, ready-made and waiting for social scientific enquiry. We
argue that the Copenhagen School’s understanding of securitisation dynamics
provides an adequate methodological starting point for such an endeavour. Rather
than taking for granted the existence of a Western ‘security community’, we thus
focus on the performative effects of a security semantics in which ‘the West’ figures
as the threatened, yet notoriously vague referent object that has to be defended
against alleged challenges. The empirical part of the article reconstructs such
securitisation dynamics in three different fields: the implications of representing
China’s rise as a challenge to Western order, the effects of the transformation of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) towards a global security actor, and
the consequences of extraordinary renditions and practices of torture for the
normative infrastructure of ‘the West’. We conclude that Western securitisation
dynamics can be understood as a discursive shift away from a legally enshrined
culture of restraint and towards more assertive forms of self-authorisation.
Der Beitrag skizziert einen neuen, sprachphilosophisch inspirierten Forschungsansatz ("Vokabulara... more Der Beitrag skizziert einen neuen, sprachphilosophisch inspirierten Forschungsansatz ("Vokabularanalyse") und wendet ihn exemplarisch auf die deutsche Außenpolitik an. Ohne die Diskussion darüber fortzusetzen, ob Kontinuität oder Wandel für die deutsche Außenpolitik seit der Vereinigung kennzeichnend ist, rekonstruiert der Beitrag die Entwicklung der deutschen außenpolitischen Praxis zwischen 1986 und 2002 anhand des Sprachgebrauchs der außenpolitischen Elite. Exemplarisch wird der Gebrauch der Schlüsselbegriffe Deutschland, Europa, Macht, Verantwortung, Selbstbewusstsein und Stolz analysiert. Es zeigt sich, dass im semantischen Netz, aus dem der außenpolitische Diskurs in Deutschland gewoben ist, mittels der Vokabularanalyse erstaunliche Verschiebungen sichtbar gemacht werden können – Verschiebungen, die ihrerseits nicht folgenlos für die außenpolitische Identität Deutschlands bleiben.
Diskursive Repräsentationen Chinas als "rising power"oder "security threat", die den amerikanisch... more Diskursive Repräsentationen Chinas als "rising power"oder "security threat", die den amerikanischen Diskurs seit den frühen 1990er Jahren prägen und zur Legitimation außenpolitischer Handlungen herangezogen werden, stehen in der Tradition älterer China-Bilder. Die Wahrnehmung Chinas und der amerikanischen Rolle in Ostasien ist pfadabhängig; das heißt, wer in der öffentlichen Debatte einen Akteur glaubhaft als Sicherheitsbedrohung darstellen möchte, kann dies am besten, wenn es Anknüpfungspunkte aus frühren Debatten gibt, auf die er sich beziehen kann. Ein möglicher solcher Bezugspunkt ist die Dämonisierung Chinas als "yellow danger", die im Zuge kolonialer Auseinandersetzungen im frühen 20. Jahrhundert gebräuchlich war. Ähnlichkeiten mit der gegenwärtigen "China threat"-Literatur sind unübersehbar. Ziel dieses Papiers ist es, an einem solchen Beispiel die epochenspezifischen Unterschiede, aber eben auch die übergreifenden Verbindungslinien derartiger Identitätskonstruktionen herauszuarbeiten, die bis heute zur Rechtfertigung der amerikanischen China-Politik herangezogen werden.
In their attempt to explain change in international politics, an emerging group of scholars in th... more In their attempt to explain change in international politics, an emerging group of scholars in the 1990s emphasised the importance of ‘non-material factors’. Questions about the
creation, evolution, and impact of norms obtained a prominent place in their theorising. Cast in a constructivist frame, this norm research promised to be a viable alternative to established approaches and while it has indeed broadened the perspective on state behaviour in International Relations, we argue that at the same time it entailed major conceptual and methodological problems which have not yet been spelled out comprehensively. Mainly, the insight that norms are constantly renegotiated in social interaction has been lost in the translation of social-theoretical claims of early constructivism into empirical research agendas. The ensuing research is best characterised as a cultural-determinist framework which is ultimately ill-equipped for the initial proposition of explaining change. We develop this critique by reconstructing the theoretical and methodological decisions of constructivist norm research. We then propose to re-conceptualise the connection between norms and action and suggest an interpretive methodology that allows delivering on the ambitious promise to explain processes of normative change in international politics. We illustrate this claim by reviewing constructivist norm research on 'humanitarian interventions' and by outlining a relational-processualist perspective on this issue.
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Papers by Christian Weber
in a manner that does not presuppose a fixed understanding of ‘the West’ as a preconstituted
political space, ready-made and waiting for social scientific enquiry. We
argue that the Copenhagen School’s understanding of securitisation dynamics
provides an adequate methodological starting point for such an endeavour. Rather
than taking for granted the existence of a Western ‘security community’, we thus
focus on the performative effects of a security semantics in which ‘the West’ figures
as the threatened, yet notoriously vague referent object that has to be defended
against alleged challenges. The empirical part of the article reconstructs such
securitisation dynamics in three different fields: the implications of representing
China’s rise as a challenge to Western order, the effects of the transformation of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) towards a global security actor, and
the consequences of extraordinary renditions and practices of torture for the
normative infrastructure of ‘the West’. We conclude that Western securitisation
dynamics can be understood as a discursive shift away from a legally enshrined
culture of restraint and towards more assertive forms of self-authorisation.
creation, evolution, and impact of norms obtained a prominent place in their theorising. Cast in a constructivist frame, this norm research promised to be a viable alternative to established approaches and while it has indeed broadened the perspective on state behaviour in International Relations, we argue that at the same time it entailed major conceptual and methodological problems which have not yet been spelled out comprehensively. Mainly, the insight that norms are constantly renegotiated in social interaction has been lost in the translation of social-theoretical claims of early constructivism into empirical research agendas. The ensuing research is best characterised as a cultural-determinist framework which is ultimately ill-equipped for the initial proposition of explaining change. We develop this critique by reconstructing the theoretical and methodological decisions of constructivist norm research. We then propose to re-conceptualise the connection between norms and action and suggest an interpretive methodology that allows delivering on the ambitious promise to explain processes of normative change in international politics. We illustrate this claim by reviewing constructivist norm research on 'humanitarian interventions' and by outlining a relational-processualist perspective on this issue.
in a manner that does not presuppose a fixed understanding of ‘the West’ as a preconstituted
political space, ready-made and waiting for social scientific enquiry. We
argue that the Copenhagen School’s understanding of securitisation dynamics
provides an adequate methodological starting point for such an endeavour. Rather
than taking for granted the existence of a Western ‘security community’, we thus
focus on the performative effects of a security semantics in which ‘the West’ figures
as the threatened, yet notoriously vague referent object that has to be defended
against alleged challenges. The empirical part of the article reconstructs such
securitisation dynamics in three different fields: the implications of representing
China’s rise as a challenge to Western order, the effects of the transformation of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) towards a global security actor, and
the consequences of extraordinary renditions and practices of torture for the
normative infrastructure of ‘the West’. We conclude that Western securitisation
dynamics can be understood as a discursive shift away from a legally enshrined
culture of restraint and towards more assertive forms of self-authorisation.
creation, evolution, and impact of norms obtained a prominent place in their theorising. Cast in a constructivist frame, this norm research promised to be a viable alternative to established approaches and while it has indeed broadened the perspective on state behaviour in International Relations, we argue that at the same time it entailed major conceptual and methodological problems which have not yet been spelled out comprehensively. Mainly, the insight that norms are constantly renegotiated in social interaction has been lost in the translation of social-theoretical claims of early constructivism into empirical research agendas. The ensuing research is best characterised as a cultural-determinist framework which is ultimately ill-equipped for the initial proposition of explaining change. We develop this critique by reconstructing the theoretical and methodological decisions of constructivist norm research. We then propose to re-conceptualise the connection between norms and action and suggest an interpretive methodology that allows delivering on the ambitious promise to explain processes of normative change in international politics. We illustrate this claim by reviewing constructivist norm research on 'humanitarian interventions' and by outlining a relational-processualist perspective on this issue.