Realist thought on international relations fit comfortably within the context of the great wars of the twentieth century. Powerful nations possessing massive military forces took aim at one another to affect the hierarchical structure of the international system for the good of their own security and power. These wars, however, differ greatly from today’s unconventional war on terrorism. Therefore, the realist theories of yesterday, while still useful, require at least some tweaking to fit the present situation.
Probably the most obvious critique of realism with regard to the war on terrorism is that it is a theory that deals with international relations. The belligerents in the war on terrorism are not always conventional nation-states. Therefore, any theory that seeks to explain international relations must be amended to fit the framework of a situation in which nations are not the only players. This is not simply a matter of diction either. Non-state actors do not always act like states possessing a cohesive foreign policy and a desire for self-preservation and advancement. Furthermore, terrorist organizations are not tied to any specific area of land surrounded by well-defined borders that are protected with conventional military forces. This is not to say that terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are entirely devoid of the motivations on which traditional nation-sates act like the desire for power, wealth, and security; beca...
Followers of Realist school of thought argue the case of 2003 Iraq war from the standpoint of power and Security. The Bush administration’s rationale for launching a pre-emptive attack against Iraq was based on two misleading assumptions: firstly, Iraq had or was developing Weapons of Mass Destruction (along with Iran and North Korea) and secondly, that it was aiding and protecting terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda. Such a conjecture based on unsubstantiated evidence helped Bush administration conjure up a dystopian situation which justified 2003 invasion of Iraq under the pretext of “security maximization”. This explanation was given in pursuance of the realist assumption that States’ as rational actors always act in accordance with their national security interests.
Terrorism is a rare, broad concept that affects individuals, schools, corporations, and governments alike. Generally terrorists end up wanting to make change with governments, and governments are usually the only groups powerful enough to try to deal with governments. But what should be the best strategy to deal with terrorists? Since September 11, 2001 game theory has been used to analyze how governments and how terrorists should act to achieve their best outcome. This paper will analyze the games that these competing forces can use to determine the best course of action.
The realism that will be the focus of this paper is that of Kenneth Waltz. Kenneth Waltz presents his theory of realism, within an international system, by offering his central myth that, “Anarchy is the permissive cause of war”. Kenneth Waltz’s central myth helps answer the question as to why war happens in the first place. During the cold war, there was a heightened sense of insecurity between Russia and the United States due to presence of nuclear weapons. The Movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb used cold war tension between the two countries to tell the story of a general who went crazy and decided to unleash his fleet of nuclear bombers onto Russian military bases.
Theorists as realists and liberal find it extremely irrational looking at the basis of the explanations given. In the world, there are clear laws that govern the global affairs yet terrorism has very limited laws with most acts against it being straight justice by bombings or military interventions. Most terrorists are killed even before made to face any the law. One theory that has for the past years sought to understand the acts of terror is the constructivism theories. A theory based solely on observation and scientific study on how people learn. It studies how the experiences and actions of people shape their understanding of the world. A core social constructivism scholar Alexander Wendt believes that International Relations “is not given but a construction”. He argues; “the impact of ideas and identities, how they are created, how they evolve and shape the way states respond to a situation.” “Constructivism seemed best placed in evaluating terrorism” (Lynch 2009). Per Wendt, interactions give up the identities of groups as terrorist groups with the world in general. To the sympathizer of the group, they view them as freedom fighters but states as the United States will object to that. They are known to be evil people who take the lives of innocent people. This constructivism uses to teach us that the issue of terrorism is indeed a social issue, hence the difficulty for
In realist theory, states are self-interested in that their own ‘relative gains’ are favoured over ‘absolute gains’ (i.e. gains for the entire society of states). This raises questions of motive and the potential for abuse in executing humanitarian interventions, particularly those that are unilateral. This potential for abuse is a serious flaw in the doctrine of humanitarian intervention. States can intervene in the affairs of other states under the pretence of humanitarian intervention. This makes it easier for hegemonic western countries to intrude into the business of weaker states, particularly where the regime is not democratic. This in turn not only undermines state sovereignty, but sets an international precedent where humanitarian interventions (unilateral ones in particular) are brought under suspicion , , . Realists put forward the notion that no humanitarian interventions are motivated by conscience alone and that the loss of their own funds, soldiers and efforts are motivated by state greed and power. This creates an internal contradiction within humanitarian intervention – that it is not humanitarian at all, but rather an opportunity for power plays by more powerful states. This might be a reason behind the se...
1] Harmonie Toros.”We Don’t Negotiate with Terrorists!: Legitimacy and Complexity in terrorist Conflicts.” Security Dialogue 39 (2008): 407-426.
The creation of the study of international relations in the early 20th century has allowed multiple political theories to be compared, contrasted, debated, and argued against one another for the past century. These theories were created based on certain understandings of human principles or social nature and project these concepts onto the international system. They examine the international political structure and thrive to predict or explain how states will react under certain situations, pressures, and threats. Two of the most popular theories are known as constructivism and realism. When compared, these theories are different in many ways and argue on a range of topics. The topics include the role of the individual and the use of empirical data or science to explain rationally. They also have different ideological approaches to political structure, political groups, and the idea that international relations are in an environment of anarchy.
When analyzing causes of wars, realists focus on the systems level of analysis. To realists, the state and individual level are not contributing factors to wars, and they are not significant when analyzing causes. Defensive realists focus more on the use of aggression for security purposes, whereas offensive realism argues that states deal with anarchy and their own insecurities by being the strongest state. I argue that defensive realism relates more to World War I and II because it appears as though the states created alliances and utilized balance-of-power politics in order to stop certain states from growing too large and too powerful rather than to become more powerful than other states. The realism research paradigm also believes in the type of power known as relative power. Although realism focuses primarily on power, it does not mean that liberals do not. They simply look at power differently than realists do. Relative power is a type of power where states wants to have more power than those states that surround them. Liberals do not think that relative power is the way that states compete for
People’s ideas and assumptions about world politics shape and construct the theories that help explain world conflicts and events. These assumptions can be classified into various known theoretical perspectives; the most dominant is political realism. Political realism is the most common theoretical approach when it is in means of foreign policy and international issues. It is known as “realpolitik” and emphasis that the most important actor in global politics is the state, which pursues self-interests, security, and growing power (Ray and Kaarbo 3). Realists generally suggest that interstate cooperation is severely limited by each state’s need to guarantee its own security in a global condition of anarchy. Political realist view international politics as a struggle for power dominated by organized violence, “All history shows that nations active in international politics are continuously preparing for, actively involved in, or recovering from organized violence in the form of war” (Kegley 94). The downside of the political realist perspective is that their emphasis on power and self-interest is their skepticism regarding the relevance of ethical norms to relations among states.
Realism is one of the important perspectives on global politics, it is a notion about the conservative society and political philosophy (Heywood 2011: 54; Shimko 2013: 36). Besides, Gilpin (1996) claims that “realism…, it is not a scientific theory that is subject to the test of falsifiability, therefore, cannot be proved and disproved.” (Frankel 1996: xiii). The components of the realist approach to international relations will be discussed.
The coordinated attack September 11th 2001 on the United States resulted in a prolonged war on terror; that is still active today. Many people are asking how this could happen. Others want to know how to prevent it from happing again. Some wonder if world peace will ever be possible. The United States does not think peace can be possible until the threat of terrorism becomes obsolete. There is no clear answer to the questions and concerns over terrorism although there are several schools of thought on how to respond to terrorism. This paper will discuss; realism, liberalism, and structuralism in an attempt to find a solution. I will offer Foreign Policy recommendations based on these theories; an examination regarding the application of these theories will show advantages and disadvantages of each, as well as how the United States applies them to combat and eliminate the threats of terrorism today.
International relations first arose during the rise of total war in World War One. The war forced intellectuals to look at International relations in a different spectrum and in order of a way to secure the peace Woodrow Wilson, the US president at the time used the liberal ideology to shape a post war order. This helped contribute to liberalism in International Relations. Liberalism was considered idealist because it operated on an optimistic view of human nature. Soon after the war, however, idealism was being challenged by the bureaucratic realism. And so the debate continues between idealism and realism whether which one is more likely to help explain and understand International Relations. In my paper I will argue that both terms are mutually exclusive and in order to fully grasp International Relations and apply it, there needs to be a good mixture of both. An Idealist view on international relations with an equal admixture of realism will result in more awareness in international relations on a global scale, which will help suppress the need for war and dominance of countries. I will argue this claim by showing that too much of an idealistic point of view will result in naïve thinking and too much of a realistic view will result in a distant global relationship. I will compare and contrast the scholarly works of Mordecai Roshwald and Jack Donnelly and their thoughts on Realism and Idealism in politics; Charles W. Kegley and his thoughts on realism and its challenges; and J.A. Hobson’s view on idealism in International relations. I will then connect all the scholarly works together and construct my own proposal and my contribution to this topic of idealism and realism in International Relations.
The discipline of international relations (IR) contains several theories that contain theoretical perspectives to the idea of power. Within the realist perspective there are two approaches that help paint the portrait of the realist theory, the classical approach to realism and the neo-realist approach. Classical realism and neorealism both have been subjected to criticism from IR scholars and theorists representing liberal and constructivist perspectives. The key tenets to realism contain three essential characteristics of international relations which are the state, anarchy and the balance of power. This essay will closely analyse all three characteristics with special regards to power being central to the realist perspective.
After series of attacks around the world, terrorism has been one of the most worrisome issues in world politics nowadays. Fortna (2015: 522) defines terrorist as people that utilize indiscriminate violence against public civilian in order to force government to make political compromises and conceding outright defeat. As there is yet no single explanation and definite causes of terrorism that can be relate to all categories of terrorist, I will explore the conditions that create favorable environment for transnational terrorists to keep budding. Despite many opinions and perspectives, I firmly believe that constructivism provides the best and well-grounded reasons for it. First, I will explain the constructivism’s keystones in relation to terrorism.
Since the 9/11 event, terrorism has been becoming more rampant and violent in nations of the world. Getting to the bottom and providing a solution has also been increasingly difficult and one of the main reasons is the lack of a confound definition. “Terrorism in the most widely accepted contemporary usage of term, is fundamentally and inherently political. It is also unavoidably about pow...