Book Review: Jeffrey S Lantis, Arms and Influence: U.S. Technology Innovations and the Evolution of International Security Norms
| Author | Emil Archambault |
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917720417 |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsInternational Relations |
Book Reviews 621
Arms and Influence: U.S. Technology
Innovations and the Evolution of
International Security Norms by Jeffrey S
Lantis. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
2016. 260pp., £24.99 (p/b), ISBN 9780804799775
This book advances two main – and somewhat
separate – claims on the process of norm trans-
formation: first, that technological innovations
provide opportunities for norm transformation,
and second, that a revised constructivist under-
standing focusing on the agency of great-power
elites is best suited to explain the process of
international norm transformation.
Jeffrey Lantis elaborates these two argu-
ments through five case studies of technological
innovation and subsequent norm contestation,
from the atomic bomb and non-proliferation to
the militarisation of outer space. Through these,
he proposes a revision of Martha Finnemore
and Kathryn Sikkink’s norm life-cycle model,
arguing that the end point of a norm-change
cycle is not the internalisation of norms but
rather norm substitution (p. 154), the three stages
now being ‘recognition of techno-normative
dilemmas’, ‘redefinition of domestic normative
commitments’ and ‘norm substitution attempt’.
Drawing a distinction between first-generation
(which sees norms as constitutive) and second-
generation constructivism (which considers
norms as products of constant self-reflection and
discursive contestation), Lantis sides with the lat-
ter in arguing that powerful states (namely, the
United States) often react to technological innova-
tion by seeking to transform and replace norms in
order to legitimise new behaviours, rather than
merely sticking to the internalised old norms.
Thus, Lantis makes two theoretical contributions:
first, he argues that technological innovation
is endogenous to norm change, and second, he
claims to offer a more satisfactory account of
great-power agency in driving norm transforma-
tion than other constructivist explanations.
In my view, the main interest of Lantis’
book lies in its robust constructivist theoretical
framework, rather than in the specific link of
technology and norm change. In much of the
book, technology offers an illustration to a
theoretical argument about constructivism
rather than constituting a substantial part of the
theory. Lantis claims that technological inno-
vation provides great-power leaders (meaning
American) with an ‘opportunity’ to recognise
‘techno-normative dilemmas’ – the disjunction
of norms and new behaviours made possible
through technological innovation – and thus
effect norm change (p. 18). In this, technology
may ‘catalyz[e] norm change’ (p. 150), but is
by no means an essential starting point.
Lantis’ solid constructivist theory holds very
well on its own, and the starting point for norm
revision could be other than technological. It is
unclear whether, for Lantis, technological inno-
vation has any role of its own in prompting
norm change, or whether the focus is rather
principally on the agency of great-power leader-
ships in choosing whether to react to techno-
logical innovation. I suspect he tends towards
the latter, relegating technological innovation to
the background. Nevertheless, this is a theoreti-
cally rigorous and stimulating book, which will
interest scholars of constructivism, international
norm regimes and American foreign policy.
Emil Archambault
(University of Durham)
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929917720417
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Time, Temporality and Violence in
International Relations: (De)fatalizing the
Present, Forging Radical Alternatives by
Anna M Agathangelou and Kyle D Killian
(eds). Abingdon: Routledge, 2016. 366pp.,
£100.00 (h/b), ISBN 9780415712712
Notwithstanding its structuring characteristic,
one element that is rarely thought about – if
even considered – when problematising interna-
tional relations (IR) is time. It is precisely in
this direction that Time, Temporality and
Violence in International Relations moves,
which immediately makes the book an impor-
tant contribution to the discipline.
By bringing together ‘critical theorists, art-
ists, and poets to engage systematically the
temporal structure of the relationship of politics
and violence’ (p. 15), the book sheds light, quite
successfully, on the importance of having time
and temporality – and the articulation of these
elements – as essential parts of the process of
theorising IR. Collectively, the contributors of
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