02 - Realism
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45 Terms
Q: What triggers the Great Debates in IR?
When dominant theories fail to explain current events and new theories challenge them.
Q: What defined the First Great Debate?
Utopian liberalism vs realism, sparked by failures of liberal ideas after WWI.
Q: What is the core belief of liberalism in the First Debate?
Humans are forward thinking and prefer cooperation, peace, and institutions like the League of Nations.
Q: What is the realist critique of liberalism?
States pursue power and interests over cooperation; conflict is inevitable.
Q: What defined the Second Great Debate?
Traditionalist historical approaches vs behaviouralism using data and scientific methods.
Q: What is the Third Great Debate about?
Neorealism/neoliberalism vs neo Marxism, focusing on exploitation and dependency.
Q: What is the Fourth Great Debate?
Traditional IR theories vs post positivist approaches like feminism, postcolonialism, and post structuralism.
Q: What is the individual level of analysis?
Focus on leaders’ psychology, beliefs, and decisions shaping state behaviour.
Q: What is the domestic level of analysis?
Internal structures, culture, industries, and societal values influencing foreign policy.
Q: What is the systemic level of analysis?
The international environment, anarchy, and balance of power shaping state actions.
Q: Why do the three levels of analysis interact?
State behaviour results from leaders, domestic pressures, and systemic constraints combined.
Q: How does realism view human nature?
Pessimistic, self interested, and power driven.
Q: What is anarchy in realism?
The absence of a global authority, forcing states into self help and power politics.
Q: Why is national security central to realism?
State survival is the highest priority, even if rules must be broken.
Q: Why are international relations conflictual in realism?
States have inherently conflicting interests and resolve disputes through force.
Q: What are relative gains?
The idea that a state’s gain is judged relative to others, not absolutely.
Q: Why are realists skeptical of progress?
They believe power struggles and conflict are permanent features of international politics.
Q: What did Thucydides contribute to realism?
The idea that power politics governs human behaviour and morality has no place in statecraft.
Q: What did Machiavelli argue?
Leaders must prioritize state survival, use deception, and ignore morality if others do.
Q: What did Hobbes contribute?
The concept of the state of nature as chaos, requiring strong authority internally but expecting danger externally.
Q: What is classical realism’s main assumption?
Human nature drives state behaviour and politics is a struggle for power. States maximize relative power with hegemony as the ultimate goal.
Q: What is Morgenthau’s view of political realism?
Politics is governed by objective laws rooted in human nature, and interest is defined as power.
Q: Why can’t universal moral principles guide states, according to Morgenthau?
State actions depend on circumstances of time and place, not abstract morality.
Q: What is neorealism?
A structural theory explaining state behaviour through the international system rather than human nature.
Q: What does Kenneth Waltz argue?
States are security maximizers seeking just enough power to remain safe (defensive realism).
Q: What does John Mearsheimer argue?
States are power maximizers seeking hegemony to ensure survival (offensive realism).
Q: What are the five assumptions of neorealism?
Anarchy, military capability, uncertainty, survival struggle, and rational unitary actors.
Q: What is the zero sum game?
One state’s gain equals another’s loss; total gains equal one.
Q: What is balancing?
Forming alliances to prevent any state from becoming too powerful.
Q: What is bandwagoning?
Aligning with a powerful state, placing oneself at its mercy.
Q: What is free riding?
Benefiting from a great power without contributing.
Q: What is strategic hedging?
Playing both sides to gain benefits from multiple powers.
Q: What is buck passing?
Shifting responsibility for a problem to another state.
Q: What is deterrence?
Warning adversaries through displays of capability, like nuclear weapons.
Q: What is MAD?
Mutually assured destruction—the idea that nuclear war has no winners.
Q: What is polarity?
The number of great powers in the system and their distribution.
Q: Why is unipolarity unstable?
It leads to imperialism and unchecked dominance.
Q: Why is bipolarity stable (bipolarity thesis)?
Two powers can regulate each other and maintain predictable communication.
Q: Why is multipolarity unstable?
Too many powers make regulation and trust difficult.
Q: What is a major criticism of neorealism?
It is too state centric and cannot explain major changes in the international system like the Soviet Union collapse.
Q: Why is power not fungible?
Military and economic power are not interchangeable; each serves different functions.
Q: What is neoclassical realism?
A theory combining systemic pressures with domestic factors and leader perceptions. Anarchy forces states to pay attention to the balance of power and aim for survival.
Q: Why does neoclassical realism say states underbalance?
Domestic politics, weak leadership, or lack of credibility prevent proper responses to threats.
Q: What is the hegemonic stability theory?
unipolarity is the most stable/peaceful state.
Q: What is the balance of power theory?
states use structures to create pressures and balance power, reducing the security risks of rising actors (prevent rising powers from becoming a hegemony).