Research for Structural Realism debate

Research §

The Debate

Realism

• Power (Rey and Resan)
• Actor and Interest (Eden and Rach):
  • Realism:
    • States are the most important actor, non-state actors are secondary because their behaviors are conditioned and delimited by states’ decisions (states have the power to shape, decide and guide non-state actors’ behaviors)
    • States defined their interests based on power.
• Order and changes (Rika and Vachana)

Order: Neorealists argue that conflict occurs because of the absence of war of order analogous to that which exists within states, while neoliberals stress that the prospects for cooperation are constrained by anarchy, but not made impossible.

Ordering Principles: rules of interactions between units. Two rules: hierarchical and anarchy

Change: Realists have typically focused on violent means of change, i.e. the use or threat of military action. To the realist, peaceful change entails the use of strategies of diplomatic or economic statecraft.

What does ‘change’ mean in this context?

International relations is the ‘realm of recurrence and repetition’

International anarchy and power politics will remain inescapable features of international relations

Goal: The goal of our debate is to show why our theory is better than liberalism

Layers to argue:

1. Selfish Human Nature
   • Cyberspace
     • cyber espionage is one of the most effective means through which states can overcome the uncertainty about the intentions of other states and for their national interest ¹
       • The information age has made it easier for states to spy on other states
       • Neo-Liberalism: facilitate transparency, trust, and interdependence
       • Realism: states always care about security and survival
2. Anarchy structure of the international relations
3. Relative power: Interdependence is an illusion because of relative power.
   • Neo-Liberalism: formal & informal ‘trade-links’ lead to peace
     • even though states are in cooperative relationships, they are still proactive in preventing others from gaining more, thus reinforcing the importance of relative gains. ¹
       • Ex: South China Sea Dispute: China vs ASEAN involves military conflict because they’re not giving up valuable resources because informal trade-links
4. Interdependence:
   • Why can some states without military power challenge a powerful state? ¹
     • Iceland challenging UK for fishing area: it used law method rather than military. It threatened to leave the NATO if UK kept harassing it (it had a NATO base)
       • membership in a multinational institution as a mechanism of power
     • Realism’s Weak Counter: National politics, international institutions, and ideological or cultural affinities among nations have little relevance to FPDM,
       • Weakness: but if that’s true Iceland would have aligned with the Soviet, but due to cultural differences it didn’t
   • Neo-Liberalism: believes in ‘leveling effect’ from interdependence
     • Realism: as earlier advanced states invest in technology first, later advancing states still can’t catch up ⇒ ‘leveling effect’ doesn’t happen
   • Realism: Outside democratic zone of peace, the world of states is not a world of complex interdependence ¹
   • Neo-Liberalism: economic interdependence among liberal democratic nations can lead to peace (Democratic Peace Theory) ¹
     • Realism:
       • States being democracies doesn’t mean they can be interdependent due to trade incongruence: states that produce and export the same resource means that they will have little need for trade with one another (usually neighbors)
       • asymmetrical nature of economic interdependence: state A might need side B more than B need A
       • people mistook correlation as causation (Democracy ⇔ Peaceful), democratic states still sometimes has to resort to use of force to meet their goal.
5. Security
   • Military capability is important regardless of how the world has changed.
   • Concept of Self-help
6. The main actors are the state, other actors are not important.
7. The main interest is based on national interest and power (military).
8. International Institutions are tools for states to acquire power and interests.

• Neo-Liberalism thinks the same, but Neoliberals offer several solutions to these challenges to cooperation: ²
  • Iteration of interactions and transparency: offered by institutions
  • Advance in communication technology allows states to monitor each other, detect and punish cheaters.
  • IOs provide forum for frequent and regular meetings, allowing states to negotiate to find common ground and work for beneficial gains.
• Realism’s Counter: neo-realism and neo-liberalism can be complementary and that states will only cooperate with other states if they jointly benefit from such a cooperation. ¹
  • State is important to the existence of IOs: NATO continues to exist because it serves “can provide information, reduce transaction costs, make commitments credible, establish focal points for coordination, and in general facilitate the operation of reciprocity.”, beyond deterring Soviets

9. Regime

• Neo-Liberalism: believes regional hegemons make peace ¹
  • Realism: rather than enhancing peace, regional hegemony (asymmetric economic power) can be conflict enhancing due to relative gains
  • Ex: India & Iran are regional powers, but they promote anxiety instead of stability

Questions:

1. If Neoliberalism says that States are constrained by international law, then can you explain how China disregarded environmental law, the U.S invaded Iraq, and other instances where states have broken international law and were never punished?
2. Neoliberalism depends on collective action to get things done on the international stage, so explain why countries did not work together to solve the issues posed by Covid-19
3. If institutions were actors with their own interests, then why can’t they influence to solve issues or why do have issues making a resolution?

• Realist: They are secondary actors and have no hard power

References

Footnotes §

1. Neo-liberalism versus Neo-realism | by Kenneth Andres | Medium ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. IS405 Lecture Neo-Liberalism ↩