Realism

Question 1

Kenneth Waltz (1)

Answer 1

Structure of International System - Organizing principle (anarchy & hierarchy) based on the differentiation of units, and distribution of capabilities.

Question 2

Kenneth Waltz (2)

Answer 2

Power is means to an end. Nations try to maintain their position in the system by being security maximizers.

Question 3

Kenneth Waltz (3)

Answer 3

States should be concerned with relative strength than with absolute power.

Question 4

Kenneth Waltz (4)

Answer 4

In “Man, State, and War” international anarchy is the permissive cause of war.

Question 5

Kenneth Waltz (5)

Answer 5

In 1991 stated, that unbalanced power constitutes a danger leading to volatility and war. Expansion of peace zone is no antidote to raw power. U.S. will increasingly use unilateral actions for its foreign policy.

Question 6

Hans Morgenthau (1)

Answer 6

International politics is the struggle for power. Politics is governed by laws that are created by human nature. Interests, defined in terms of power, are the mechanisms to understand international politics - Politics Among Nations.

Question 7

Hans Morgenthau (2)

Answer 7

Advocated realist bipolar rivalry versus USSR not ideological. Power seeking behavior rooted in biological drive of humans. “ The drives to live, to propagate, and to dominate are common to all men.”

Question 8

Hans Morgenthau (3)

Answer 8

Prestige and reputation for power affects foreign policy - Counters Waltz

Question 9

Machiavelli

Answer 9

Principles are subordinate to policies. State leaders must adapt to changing power-political configurations.

Question 10

Herbert Butterfield

Answer 10

“Hobbesian Fear” - Humans incapable of overcoming, the irreducible mistrust of security dilemma.

Question 11

John Mearsheimer (1)

Answer 11

“The tragedy of Great Power Politics” - Offensive realism states that the structure of the international system compels states to maximize their relative position.

Question 12

John Mearsheimer (2)

Answer 12

No state is satisfied or status-quoed. All states are continuously trying to gain power at the expense of other states. Best path to peace is to accumulate more power than anyone.. However being a global hegemon is impossible thus “world is condemned to perpetual great-power competition.”

Question 13

John Mearsheimer (3)

Answer 13

“Back to the Future: Instability in Europe after the Cold War.” (1990) Bipolarity produced stability and order post-WWII (unipolarity, German reunification, ethnic redresses). After Cold War, balance of power & extreme realism & ethnic rivalries. He and other realists opposed Iraq War.

Question 14

Robert Kaplan

Answer 14

“The Coming Anarchy” (1994). Talked about the dying regions of Post-Cold War era like Africa (breakdown of structures and traditional certainties). Scarcity of resources and will lead to a backlash against the haves.

Question 15

E.H. Carr (1)

Answer 15

The Twenty Year’s Crisis (1919-1939). Critiqued liberal utopianism. Mercantilism augments the power of the state. Increase wealth through capture or trade war.

Question 16

E.H. Carr (2)

Answer 16

Argued that most serious wars are those that seek to increase military power or prevent others from becoming stronger.. Balance of power to prevent others from hegemony.

Question 17

Jean-Jaques Rousseau

Answer 17

Organization of social relations rather than human nature determines whether or not we have war. Self-interests akin to the stag hunt guide cooperation (reason why wars occur and cooperation is limited).

Question 18

Robert Gilpin (1)

Answer 18

Realism remains true across time and space. Individuals may seek truth, beauty, and justice, but all these will be lost unless one makes provision for one’s security in power struggles among groups.

Question 19

Thucydides (1)

Answer 19

International Politics driven by endless struggle for power which has roots in human nature. Justice, law, and society have no place or are circumscribed.

Question 20

Thucydides (2)

Answer 20

The Peloponnesian War. Human motivation are ambition, fear, and self-interest. “The string do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

Question 21

Stephen Walt

Answer 21

(1987) Balance of Threat Theory - States balance not against (all) external capabilities but against threats (i.e. intentions and capabilities) for example Britain with a nuke vs, Iran with a nuke.

Question 22

John Herz

Answer 22

Security dilemma cause by self-help. Where states look after their own security regardless of how others interpret it, causing a security dilemma for them.

Question 23

Robert Gilpin (2)

Answer 23

Realist emphasize the constraints on politics imposed by egoism, interantional anarchy, which require ‘the primacy in all political life of power and security’.

Question 24

Role of morals and ethics

Answer 24

Morals and ethics occupy no role in international politics. Dual moral standard exists (internal vs. external)

Question 25

Self-help and balance of power Option

Answer 25

E.g. Warsaw Pact and Nato

Question 26

Limits on human reason

Answer 26

Skepticism about the capacity of human reason to deliver moral progress resonates through the work of Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau.

Question 27

Classical Realism time period

Answer 27

Thucydides to 20th Century

Question 28

Modern Realism time period

Answer 28

1939-1979

Question 29

Structural/Neo Realism time period

Answer 29

1979 onwards

Question 30

Structural Realism (1)

Answer 30

Struggle for power but it is not a result of human nature rather it is about the lack of an overarching authority above states and the distribution of power in the international system.

Question 31

Structural Realism (2)

Answer 31

Distribution of power in the international system is key independent variable to understanding important international outcomes such as war and peace, alliance politics and the balance of power.

Question 32

Structural Realism (3)

Answer 32

The number of great powers determines the structure of the international system. International political structures differ only in their distribution of capabilities.

Question 33

Structural Realism (4)

Answer 33

Unipolarity is unstable and will facilitate rise of balancing great powers.

Question 34

Structural Realism (5)

Answer 34

Anarchy, egoism and the distribution of capabilities cannot explain the vast majority of what happens in international relations.

Question 35

Structural Realism (6) - Mearshimer’s Five Assumptions

Answer 35

1. States are principal actors with no higher power.
2. States have military offensive capability
3. Intentions - Can never be certain of other state’s intentions.
4. Survival is highest goal of each state.
5. States are rational actors (maximize chances for survival)

Question 36

Structural Realism (6) - Mearshimer’s Three Behaviors

Answer 36

1. Fear
2. Threats
3. Anarchical System
   - Self-help
   - Power attainment - max relative power

Question 37

Power

Answer 37

The ability of one group to influence and control either another group or outcomes and events that pertain to them. “Might makes right” because of no higher authority.

Question 38

Structural Realism (7) - Mearshimer’s Hegemon

Answer 38

Regional hegemons cannot attain global hegemony. Two goals:

1. Dominate your region.
2. Don’t allow someone to dominate their region so they don’t roam. (I.e. Nazi Germany, USSR, etc)

Question 39

Security Dilemma

Answer 39

One’s defensive actions can seem offensive by others and they reciprocate. “Tragedy of Power Politics” _ Mearsheimer 2001

Question 40

Offensive realism

Answer 40

States maximize their aggregate power

Question 41

Defensive realism

Answer 41

States maximize their security.

Question 42

Anarchy

Answer 42

Anarchy is the permissive cause of war. Also the permissive cause of civil war (i.e. in a state with no government uncertainty prevails)

Question 43

Unipolarity

Answer 43

Means conflicts do not escalate into a confrontation directly affectibg US security.

Question 44

Neoclassical Realism (1)

Answer 44

Relative distribution of material power shapes the paramenters of state’s foreign policy behavior. Foreign policy behavior is also shaped by a leaders perceptions and calculations of relative power and prestige.

Question 45

Rational Choice Realism (1)

Answer 45

Grieco (1993) - Democracy, Interdependence and the Liberal Peace and Krasner (1999) - Sovereignty: Organized hypocrisy.

Question 46

Rational Choice Realism (2)

Answer 46

Advocates the claim that institutions matter, although the problem of relative gains means that they exert less causal force than non-liberals contend; rational choice realists use advanced social science methodologies, such as game theory, in order to test realist hypotheses.

Question 47

Neoclassical Realism (2)

Answer 47

Schweller (1997) - Deadly Imbalances and Hitler’s Strategy of World Conquest and Zakaria (1998) - The Post-American World

Question 48

Neoclassical Realism (3)

Answer 48

The systemic account of world politics provided by structural realism is incomplete; it needs to be supplemented with better accounts of unit-level variables, including how power is perceived and how leadership is exercised.