The objective of this article is to analyze the contribution made by the Copenhagen School to international security studies, by examining its relation with international relations theories and theories in the field of international security. Firstly, I review briefly mainstream academic literature in security studies since its genesis, with a view to understanding the impact of constructivism on the field since the 1990s. Secondly, I proceed to a brief revision of the debates involving not only rationalists and constructivists but also different variants of constructivism, with the purpose of situating the work of the Copenhagen authors in the epistemological debates in the field of international relations. Lastly, I present a panorama of the work undertaken by the Copenhagen School, based on two main axes: (a) its main innovations; and (b) the debates evoked by its work, i.e. the critics received and the answers given by the authors. I conclude that one of the main contributions of the Copenhagen authors to international security studies corresponds to the role of synthesis of its work regarding not only wider debates undertaken in the field of international relations theory but also the post-Cold War debate about international security.
International Relations Theory; Rationalism a nd Constructivism; International Security Studies
