Wendt's Theory of International Politics. Ideas Have to Stick to Reality.

Throughout my dissertation I retrace Alexander Wendt’s thought, capturing his most remarkable insights and addressing the international community's focus on those elements that rather I consider incomplete. I offer a critical reading of his masterpiece “Social Theory of International Politics” showing chapter after chapter the obstacles such enviable theory is not able to overtake. A detail of my work is its structure: instead of following Wendt’s contents disposition, I reversed it. As a matter of fact I will start from his model of international structural change to descend until his ontological and epistemological foundations. The aims of my work are multiple. First, I suggest a theory reallocation. Given the impossibility to explain successfully how structural change should occur without calling into question elements such as leadership and human creativity, I will propose to reallocate Social Theory on materialist and individualist positions. Second, I argue the impossibility to explain the concept of reflexivity as a phenomenon belonging to the sphere of the statehood and thus distinct by human being’s minds. Third, I claim how Wendt’s focus on action actually marks a discontinuity with his choice of “state-humanization”, to the extent it precludes the role of discourse. Fourth, I claim how Wendt’s grand theory is likely to stumble due to the paradox between the complexity of its theoretical dimension and the relative poor instruments states are provided with in order to face the challenges that will arise from international anarchy.