ABSTRACT

While scholars (mainly from the Global North) in International Relations have been turning to a (critical) constructivist agenda in norms research, the field has increasingly become devoid of applying this area of research in understanding the nuclear behavior of deviant states from the Global South. The paper therefore attempts to bridge this research gap by using the case of the India-US nuclear relationship. To do so, the paper: i) identifies the probable convergences of the existing literature on nuclear policy and the research on constructivist norms, ii) highlights India’s racial treatment as a Southern nuclear state in academia and policy discourse, and iii) recognizes plausible avenues for the expansion of the Western dominated normative research agenda by analyzing India’s nuclear relationship with the US ― with a specific focus to norm contestation and normative change. In bringing together (critical) constructivists and scholars in nuclear politics to further our understanding of how we perceive security of non-western states, this work makes an epistemological and ontological contribution in the field of international security studies.

摘要

虽然国际关系领域的学者（主要来自全球北方）已经转向规范研究中的（关键）建构主义议程，但该领域越来越缺乏将这一研究领域应用于理解来自全球南方的越轨国家的核行为. 因此，本文试图通过使用印美核关系的案例来弥补这一研究差距。为此，本文：i) 确定了现有核政策文献和建构主义规范研究的可能趋同，ii) 强调了印度在学术界和政策话语中作为南方核国家的种族待遇，iii) 通过分析印度与美国的核关系，承认扩展西方主导的规范研究议程的合理途径——特别关注规范争论和规范变革。这项工作将核政治领域的（批判性）建构主义者和学者聚集在一起，以进一步了解我们如何看待非西方国家的安全，这项工作在国际安全研究领域做出了认识论和本体论的贡献。