Hobbes' Leviathan and Security Dilemma

Hobbes and the Security Dilemma

• Human beings lived in a condition of war 'every one against every one' until a sovereign state (Leviathan) was established to maintain order and end anarchy.
• The pursuit of personal security and domestic security through the creation of a state leads to international insecurity rooted in the anarchy of the state system, known as the security dilemma.

Hobbes and Morality

• In an anarchic system, there is no fixed idea of good or bad, and morality does not apply beyond national boundaries.
• Without a superior authority to legislate codes of conduct, no morality or justice can exist.

Hans Morgenthau

• Hans Morgenthau is considered one of the "founding fathers" of the realist approach.
• According to Morgenthau, human beings are evil by nature and pursue power for their own benefit.
• The final political space within which security is ensured is the independent state; beyond the state, security is impossible.

Self-Help Situation

• It is dangerous to place the security of one's own country in the hands of others.
• The security dilemma arises even if a state is arming for defensive purposes, as it is rational to assume the worst in a self-help system.

Polarity and System Stability

• Kenneth Waltz argues that uncertainty increases as the number of international actors increases, making multipolar systems less desirable.
• Waltz also argues that bipolar systems are more stable due to the simplicity and predictability of relations between superpowers.

Hegemonic Stability Thesis

• Neo-realism claims a central place in international political economy through the hegemonic stability theory.
• According to Robert Gilpin and Stephen Krasner, a single state must be able and willing to invest resources and bear the burdens associated with maintaining a liberal international economy.

Offensive Realism

• John Mearsheimer argues that states pursue aggressive, expansionist policies to accumulate as much power and capabilities as possible.
• The objective is to become a regional, if not global, hegemon.

Criticisms against Realism

• Realists are criticized for being deterministic and pessimistic, ignoring domestic factors such as economic and social processes that affect foreign behavior.
• Realists failed to foresee the dissolution of the Soviet Union, focusing only on military aspects of power and ignoring social, political, and economic difficulties.
• It is difficult for realists to understand change in the absence of war, and they often ignore non-state actors and issues.