Realism (international relations)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Right is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." -- Thucydides; History of the Peloponnesian War |
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Realism is a school of thought in international relations theory, theoretically formalising the Realpolitik statesmanship of early modern Europe. Although a highly diverse body of thought, it can be thought of as unified by the belief that world politics ultimately is always and necessarily a field of conflict among actors pursuing power. Crudely, realists are of three kinds in what they take the source of ineliminable conflict to be. Classical realists believe that it follows from human nature, neorealists focus upon the structure of the anarchic state system, and neoclassical realists believe that it is a result of a combination of the two and certain domestic variables. Realists also disagree about what kind of action states ought to take to navigate world politics, dividing between (although most realists fall outside the two groups) defensive realism and offensive realism. Realists have also claimed that a realist tradition of thought is evident within the history of political thought all the way back to antiquity to Thucydides.
Post-realism
Post-realism suggests that Realism is a form of social, scientific and political rhetoric. It opens rather than closes a debate about what is real and what is realistic in international relations.
Prominent Post-Realists:
See also
- Complex interdependence
- Consensus reality
- Consequentialism
- International legal theory
- Flipism
- Game theory
- Global justice
- Legalism (Chinese philosophy)
- Might makes right
- Negarchy
- Peace through strength
- Realpolitik
- Reinhold Niebuhr, (1892–1971), American theologian