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Herman Cain is a Constructivist

Anouk Dey | November 30, 2011

Herman Cain says the United States needs “a leader, not a reader.” In that vein, he published his “Assessment of Our Key Country Relations,” a map of the world’s Facebook connections that reads something like your Facebook wall (or the mind of someone who has read too much Huntington). Did the Republican candidate know he was drawing on a rich tradition of constructivist literature in International Relations? Now he does.

  • Chris Tenove

    Interesting observation, Anouk, but I’m not sure I can agree. He clearly seeks to define what the United States is through the reproduction of its enemies and competitors, as well as friends. Moreover, he has little interest in practices and institutions, but sees foreign policy as a game of language. I think that makes him a sophisticated post-structuralist, à la David Campbell in Writing Security, no?

  • Fred Matern

    He’s confusing freedom with FB.