Running Fence

divide. Third, I consider arguments for a possible convergence between rationalist and constructivist approaches to the study of IR. Fourth, having reviewed both sides of the debate, I then advance an alternative view, suggesting that debates between ‘fence builders’ and ‘bridge builders’ are fundamentally miscast to the extent that they remain preoccupied by differences in analytical approach to the exclusion of the more fundamental normative differences that separate the various strands of IR theory

he couldn’t apologise because he had killed it! He couldn’t forgive himself for what he had done. • one day, when she was still a child, Pauline was playing in her grandmother’s house with some of her friends. They got excited and started running around. She bumped into a table and broke her grandmother’s favourite vase/china. She apologised to her grandmother: she told her she had tripped on a hairball and gave her a kiss and her sweetest smile. Outils linguistiques • Enrichissement

of affect and the limitations of long-term memory. Given these features of human thinking, it follows that people will forget the specific events that occur during a political campaign but will incorporate their reactions toward the events via a “running tally” of affect toward the candidates. The second observation is the more crucial. It is one thing to propose that political psychologists use formal theory, quite another to propose that they use rational choice theory. Lupia understandably recommends

tree in the next yard sheds its leaves on our lawn every fall, we may cope with this repeated annoyance by speaking to the person who is the source of the trouble. We hope to get the neighbor to trim the branches of his or her tree, which overlap the fence separating the two backyards. This could risk an angry confrontation that might complicate the relationship or turn it sour. If the effort fails—perhaps we come on too strong or in an accusatory fashion, or the neighbor turns out to be uncooperative—we