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According to Lyotard, "Languages are not employed haphazardly,each must formulate its own rules and petition the addressee to accept them," (1984, 42). How we discuss something must be agreed upon and understood before the discussion begins. If we look at international relations as a discussion, what are the rules and from where do they come would be the equivalent concern. Constructivism informs us that rules are embedded in the system as the norms and principles by which actors are identified. The discourse among the actors is done according to norms, which are designed by discourse among the actors. The actors are, in the case of international relations, states. By common communication, derived by norms of understanding, states can project the understanding of "stateness" onto the system of states.
These same embedded norms allow states to understand what is acceptable behavior and transmit this behavior into the system. Michel Foucault, in Discipline and Punish (1977), states that "A body is docile that may be subjected, used, transformed and improved," (1977, 136). Looking at the constructivist proposition that the norms and principles that are embedded in the system inform and develop the identity of the actors and then the actors can in turn inform and redefine the system, it is easy to see the influence of the Foucauldian conception of docility. .
One purpose of understanding international relations theory is to go beyond the description of the subject manner and explain how the system and the units of the system might be transformed. Foucault (1977) shows how discipline and punishment in the world changed over time as the people informed the governments of what types of punishment and discipline were acceptable. The role of the people was determined by the society in which they lived. The people in turn redefined acceptable practices in the society. The same can be applied to states in the international system.