IS405 Lecture on Realism
Class: IS405 Created Time: September 27, 2021 2:08 PM Database: Class Notes Database Is Reference for: Security Dilemma, Man, the State, and War, Offensive Realism Last Edited Time: December 20, 2021 2:10 PM Tags: (PROCESSED) Type: Lecture
- October 4, 2021 group 1 presentation
- Defend kenneth waltz
- Why is the Cold War not over: soviet may fall but china will rise
- never ending enemies to rise against the united states
- cover in presentation
- Which global events can we use? can we have duplicate with another group?
- If some event is not analyzed deeply you can still use it
- The more recent the better?
- It’s unlikely to pick the same event and different groups have different perspectives
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Realism came from the need to explain the real world in opposition of ‘what the world could be’ in idealism
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Realism focuses on war and peace
- The Dooms Day Clock helps support Realism
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Only large states or super powers can decide what will happen to the world
- not even small states
- NGOs or terrorist groups etc doesn’t have power
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Hegemony isn’t a good thing in Realism
- Hegemon is a threat to every other state
- → creating coalitions and war against the rising hegemon
- Hegemon is preponderance: a great power with large gaps between other great powers
- Hegemon is a threat to every other state
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Anarchy: no overarching authority above a state (world government) {#8db9d3}
- Can’t rely on the UN without consensus from every member state
- Must rely on yourself
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Russia, Syria, and Iraq defeated ISIS (#NeedResearch)
Security Dilemma
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Security Dilemma: its the difficult choice between choosing to continue building their power and stopping.
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States A cannot stay in one place or risk being invaded by state B who builds up their power.
- State B will take an opportunity to take out their enemy (State A)
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No matter what you choose to do you will be end with the bad result of War
- That’s why its a dilemma
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International System being anarchic is what makes states act that way.
How to get peace
Using balance of power
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How to attain peace with realism
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START: Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty to limit the arms power and nuclear weapons power between the Soviet and United States
- Cold War ended without any hot wars
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Balance of Power: for smaller countries to band together and challenge a larger power but not exceed it
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Peace can occur in the midst of arms race, possession of nuclear power
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How to measure, reassure the balance of power between states
- There is an art that Diplomats use to communicate effectively and transparently between countries
- [Calculating Credibility] (Book) on methods to calculate relative power
- Past action theory vs current calculus
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Classical Realism is the first attempt to make realism a scientific theory
- Realism was a philosophy: an art of governance
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Neo-Realism | Structural Realism: Kenneth Waltz created it
- Focus on structure
- 1919-1939: League of Nations is Idealist thinking of woodrow wilson
- Edward Hallett Carr’s The Twenty Years Crisis and Morgenthau’s Politics Among Nations is the founding texts of Classical Realism
- Kenneth Waltz’s book Man, the State, and War. Human nature is not the cause of war.
- The inherent problems with international system:
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a system has three components
- Interacting Units are states
- Ordering Principle: rule of interaction between units. Between two rules
- Hierarchical: not possible
- Anarchic
- Distribution of Power: who is big and who is small. The only characteristic of a system that varies and changeable
- Uni-polarity
- Bi-polarity
- Multi-polarity
Waltz says the system’s polarity is the only variable that can change
- and when it does change it leads to world wars
- says uni-polarity always create a coalition against them
- multi-polarity will create many opportunities for war
- bi-polarity is the most stable and will last forever
- even if one super power got every power in the int system to go against the other super power, it doesn’t mean that much
- when alliances happen even for the smallest country the international system becomes unstable and creates multiple potential enemies for the entire system
- Both world war 1 and 2 started from small countries expanding their power
- What happens when bi-polarity changes to uni-polarity without a war? cold war ended peacefully?
Defensive Realism
- Defensive realism is too technical?
- Developed while analyzing events of WW1
- Is war perpetual?
- foreign policy should be to defend oneself to stay in peace
- If expansionism won’t pay anymore the offensive-defensive balance is at equalibrium
- Defensive realism says Weapons technology is defense dominant. Arms are meant to be used for defense
- except railroads
- Defensive realism failed to predict what happens so many times, WW1, WW2
- Jack Snyder defends its faults
- If weapons technology is Offensive dominant means the offensive has an advantage or defender must use offensive tactics for protection
Offensive Realism
- Offensive and Defensive realism isn’t opposite in the role of weapons technology
- Foreing Policy of offensive realism is for states to secure survival states must attack others to gain the most power
- John Mearsheimer’s assumptions
- Combined together, the nature of the international system makes system act in an offensive way to gain hegemony for survival
- Why do states gain power?
- Global hegemony by one state isn’t possible
- States are encouraged to become regional hegemon in local area
- And the area’s regional hegemon becomes the “offshore balancer”, to fill a power vacuum, prevent another state from being a regional hegemon in this region
- Tragedy of Great Power Politics: Even knowing One power controlling the world isn’t possible (hegemony), regional hegemons still try to get global hegemon
- Continental power doesn’t have naval capability of Island Great Power who doesn’t have the land capabilities of continental power (Russia & UK)
- Neo-Classical Realism is a return back to classical texts of realism from Kenneth’s realism