Classical Realism & International Relations

Classical Realism

• Classical Realism encompasses anarchy, power politics, and warfare
• Realism places emphasis on history
• History is viewed as cyclical, based on a recurrent nexus of necessity, chance, and human decision
• To deflect threats, rulers often suspend moral and legal rules, called the doctrine of necessity by Machiavelli

Rules of Politics

• Politics possess inherent rules, irreducible to or contained by moral or legal rules for responding to necessity
• Conflict/competition for power are inevitable and irrepressible

Thomas Hobbes: the Leviathan

• International life is miserable, representing a state of war, described as "solitary, poore, nasty and brutish and short," also called the state of nature
• Individuals dwell in lawless settings without common power to awe them
• Individuals enter civil society, installing a sovereign power to escape the state of nature, yet states formed still endure war
• International anarchy doesn't indicate disorder but that states don't recognize higher authority

E. H. Carr: The 20 Years' Crisis

• A polemical attack on utopian approaches in the name of realism
• International relations feature an oligarchical configuration where some states are deemed more important
• These states are divided into "haves" and "have-nots."
• "Haves" possess wealth/influence, satisfied with the existing powers/order
• "Have-nots" encompass dissatisfied states and revisionist powers
• Peace isn't an identifiable interest among states since interests diverge to maintain the status quo or change it

Hans J. Morgenthau: Politics Among Nations

• Evil is present in all political actions
• There is lust for power to increase and demonstrate
• There is skepticism toward a legalistic-moralistic approach to international relations
• Power is placed at the center of the political universe
• Interests are defined by power as a universally valid objective
• Elements of power exist

Raymond Aron: Peace and War: a Theory in International Relations

• National interests are defined in terms of security, eternally
• Self-help serves as the only certain means to uncertain self-preservation or survival
• Each state aspires to independently survive, making major decisions on its own
• Balance of power/alliances can curb power of other states, ensuring independence from threats, aggression, and hegemony
• Common Security exists

Neo-realism/ists

• Based on a scientific method, systematizing core doctrines of realism
• It is grounded more in economic theory and philosophy of science than historical reflections
• Kenneth Waltz severed the connection between internal and external politics dimensions
• The international system's structure outweighs human nature or domestic state characteristics
• States are treated as empty boxes, where internal characteristics or features don't alter the international level
• Anarchy's fundamental structure shapes state behavior
• States aren't distinct, their primary function is to produce/purse security
• Self-help becomes the principle of action in an anarchic order
• States must guard security, defending their relative position to other states without relying on others
• States act like oligopolistic firms
• There is concern with asymmetric distribution of advantages, relative gain versus absolute gains
• Interdependence produces reciprocal vulnerability
• Distribution of capabilities across states occurs, especially in the military field like bipolarity/multipolarity
• Balance of power is automatic, not from diplomatic efforts
• John Mearsheimer's Tragedy of Great Power Politics notes great powers are never satisfied, seeking opportunities to gain power over rivals
• Power is maximized

Offensively Oriented States

• Offensively oriented states possess revisionist powers, responding to structural constraints

Morality vs. Politics

• Morality vs. politics causes tension for statesmen/women
• The ethic of responsibility is contrary to the ethic of convictions
• Good intentions or convictions matter less in the international area than consequences
• Reason of state (raison d'etat) is based on autonomous/primary politics; political reasoning, crucial for state interests, obeys its rules/logics independently of morality/law

Constructivism

• A major challenger to Neo-realism
• Alexander Wendt's major works are Theory of International Politics and Social Theory of International Politics
• States are the main actors in international politics, operating in anarchy
• Self-help is a response to anarchy; it could be an idea/institution and only one of anarchy's responses
• Ideas about the international system shape international relations' rules and norms
• Identities can shift, changing rules/norms sets
  • There exist three cultures of IR
    • Hobbesian culture: states are probable enemies, using violence without restraints.
    • Lockean culture: rules restrain the activity, with states accepting there might be violence to further international interests.
    • Kantian culture: resolution of disputes through negotiation was the norm, cooperation became standard for security threats.

Liberalism

• Often viewed as the political philosophy of the modern west
• Central principles include freedom, human rights, reason, progress, justice, and peace
• Constitutionalism and democracy are key
• Democratization, institutionalism, and economic interdependence exist
• It draws heavily on Locke’s 17th-century view of liberal individualism
• A government of free individuals defend law/property
• The 18th-century view of liberal commercialism produces material incentives prompting peace
• Kant established liberal republicanism, which brought about markets, rights, and republican institutions reaffirming liberal politics
• World politics is against the "jungle" view

Liberal View

• The liberal view of world politics is like a cultivable "garden"
• This view combines war and the possibility of peace
• For liberals, states aren't hypothetical but a coalition/interests conglomerate representing groups/individuals
• Representative states mirror individual consents
• Autocratic states are instances of individual rights repression
• Domestic institution/values mold foreign policy
• Liberal moral theory underpins liberal peace with a prescriptive force
• Foreign Policy (FP) should reflect the rights/duties of individuals
• FP should foster institutional measures enhancing morally equal human beings' ability to live
• Liberals differ on their principles' practical import while stressing observance of national sovereignty or justified intervention

Neo-Liberalism

• Neo-liberalism accepts basic realism premises, pulling them anew
• Institutions/organizations play a central role in international politics
• Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye are major school proponents
• International regimes view states as rational actors that utilize IO to create social order for shared goals
• Principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures

Marxism and Neo-Marxism

• Dialectics are important
• History is linear
• Alienation exists
• There is exploitation
• Substructure vs. the superstructure exists
• Struggle between classes

Michael Buroway's 3 Contraditory Elements

• Objectivity exists by diagnosing capitalism and its inherent problems
• There is engagement by challenging capitalism
• Imagination fosters a society free from capitalism

Fates of Marxism

• Marxism is irrevocably and definitively dead
  • Totalitarianism and all its horrors
  • “Thank God it is dead”
• Marxism: not the cemetery but supermarket
  • Neo-Marxists are the most serious and seek to revise Marxism
  • Marxism possesses a legacy

Marxism

• Marxism exists as a tradition
  • Like a tree that has taken roots, trunks, leaves that continues to grow
  • It has reached maturity
• Recognizing the shortcomings, failures, and contributions

Role of the State

• The state is created by the ruling class for its will
• It works for the dominant economic class
• F. Engels views political/state power as linked to economic/material power
• The state uses power to commit class repression
• V. Lenin thought destroying the power apparatus of the state would free the oppressed

State Apparatuses: Louis Althusser

• Repressive State Apparatus (RSA)
  • Police, Military, law, etc.
• Ideological State Apparatus (RSA)
  • Education, media, religion, etc.

Classical Realism emphasizes history and views it as cyclical. Conflict and competition for power are seen as inevitable. Thomas Hobbes described international life as a miserable state of war, a concept called the state of nature.