Final Narration Realism: Concept and Theory

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What is an IR theory? A theory of international relations is a set of ideas that explains how
the international system works. It is backed by evidence

Theories give us a deeper insight into a social phenomenon or an event such as war

The history of modern IR thought is the story of two competing schools of thought about
the concepts of human nature, society and politics. The Liberal school believes that the
rational and moral political order based on the universal moral principles can be attained
here and now. It assumes the essential goodness of human nature and its flexibility and
blames the absence of the rational social order on lack of knowledge, backwardness of
social institutions and the depravity of certain individuals or groups. It trusts in education,
reform and when required some use of force to ensure justice and harmony. The other
school, the Realist school believes that the imperfect world is the result of an imperfect
human nature. The inherent forces in human nature cannot be ignored and one must work
with them and not against them. This world is a world of opposing interests and conflicts.
Hence, moral principles can never be fully realized but the world can come as close as it can
to moral principles through the temporary balancing of interests and settlement of conflicts.
Therefore, a system of checks and balances is a must for any functioning society, based on
historical precedent rather than idealistic abstractions and which aims at realization of
lesser evil rather than absolute truth.

Today let us look at some of basic principles and concepts of Realism. Realism can be
divided into two broad groups- Classical Realism and Structural or Neo-Realism. Today we
will discuss Classical Realism.

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Classical realism is a state level theory that argues that all states seek power. That is the
first and last principle of state behavior. States seek to increase their power; they seek to
decrease the power of their enemies; and everything they do is in the name of amassing
power. States see other powerful states as rivals because power, when it is not in your
hands, is threatening. People are greedy, insecure, and aggressive, so the states they
govern will have those same characteristics. This doesn’t mean war, however. There can be
peace, but a durable peace is based upon a stable balance of power – the big players in the
international systems are roughly equal in power resources, so therefore no one thinks they
can win a war. If you don’t think you can win a war, you generally don’t start one. The US
and USSR were rivals in the cold war because they were the two most powerful states after
WW II. They were both wary of each other’s power and became enemies. But they did not
go to war because they were roughly equal in power.

Realism encompasses a variety of approaches and claims a long theoretical tradition. Among
its founding fathers, Thucydides, Machiavelli and Hobbes are the names most usually
mentioned.

Thucydides: His History of the Peloponnesian War presents a partial account of the armed
conflict between Athens and Sparta that took place from 431 to 404 B.C.E and consists of
paired speeches by personages who argue opposing sides of an issue.

Human nature is a starting point for classical political realism. Realists view human beings as
inherently egoistic and self-interested to the extent that self-interest overcomes moral
principles. At the debate in Sparta, described in Book I of Thucydides’ History, the Athenians
affirm the priority of self-interest over morality. They say that considerations of right and
wrong have “never turned people aside from the opportunities of aggrandizement offered
by superior strength” (chap. 1 par. 76). According to the Athenians, justice has no place in
power politics, while according to the Spartans justice does have power in the world.
Thucydides’ narrative investigates these two theses, and the ways of life, politics, piety, and
individuals to which they give rise. The importance of fear is one of the key tenets. The most
famous part of the book is the ‘’ Melian Dialogue.’’ Here the Athenians justify their decision
to attack Melos, because justice has no power except between equals (5.89). But the
Melians refuse to abide by the Athenian understanding and instead believe that the gods
will come to their defense because they “are pious men who stand against men who are
unjust” (5.104). In this way the Melians challenge the Athenians.

When the Athenians argue that justice has no power in the world, they assume that the
world is fundamentally indifferent to it, and hence that there are no divine powers that
enforce justice by rewarding the just and punishing the unjust. The Athenians respond to
the Melians’ argument by denying the Melian assumption that there are just gods who
reward and punish human beings. They argue that all human beings are compelled by a
necessity of their nature to want what is good for themselves, and pursue the power that is
in their interest, without regard to justice. All are compelled to care more about self interest
than justice. The Melians are not morally superior to the Athenians—they are simply
weaker. In the History, Thucydides shows that power, if it is unrestrained by moderation and
a sense of justice, brings about the uncontrolled desire for more power. And, as the
Athenians overestimate their strength and in the end lose the war, their self-interested logic
proves to be very short-sighted indeed.

The young Niccolò Machiavelli became a diplomat after the temporary fall of Florence's
ruling Medici family in 1494. Later he earned a reputation for deviousness, enjoying
shocking his associates by appearing more shameless than he truly was.
In the late fifteenth century, when Niccolò Machiavelli was born, the idea that politics,
including the relations among states, should be virtuous and moral and that the methods of
warfare should remain subordinated to ethical standards. Machiavelli challenged this well-
established moral tradition, thus positioning himself as a political innovator. The novelty of
his approach lies in his critique of classical Western political thought as unrealistic, and in his
separation of politics from ethics. He thereby lays the foundations for modern politics in his
book The Prince. Machiavellianism is a doctrine which denies the relevance of morality in
politics, and claims that all means (moral and immoral) are justified to achieve certain
political ends.

What is ultimately important is whatever is good for the state, rather than ethical scruples
or norms. Machiavelli justified immoral actions in politics, but never refused to admit that
they are evil. It became a specific task of his nineteenth-century followers to develop the
doctrine of a double ethics: one public and one private, and to apply it to international
relations.

Thomas Hobbes’s book the Leviathan is a book written to show what elements are needed
for an ideal state to exist. From Hobbes’ point of view, when men live without a powerful
ruler then they are living in what he calls the ‘’state of nature’’ where everyone is at war
with everyone else. Hobbes believes that this state of nature can be more easily controlled
if an ultimate sovereign or powerful monarch is established as a common power amongst
men.

During the upheavals of the English Revolution when the divine right of the English
monarchy was challenged by Parliament, there was vigorous debate about the kind of
government which should be instituted. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) argued for a powerful
absolute monarch ("The Leviathan") who could keep order and provide essential
government services. Obviously, Hobbes’ thinking was influenced by the ongoing English
Civil War as he developed a pessimistic philosophy that has had a continuing influence on
Western political thought. His 'Leviathan' presents a bleak picture of human beings in the
state of nature, where life is 'nasty, brutish, and short.' Fear of violent death is the principal
motive that causes people to create a state by contracting to surrender their natural rights
and to submit to the absolute authority of a sovereign. Although Hobbes challenged the
doctrine of the divine right of kings saying that the power of the sovereign derived originally
from the people, he maintained that the sovereign's power is absolute. Hobbes's concept of
the social contract led to investigations by other political theorists, notably Locke, Spinoza,
and Rousseau, who formulated their own radically different theories of the social contract.
SHOW SLIDE 4 PICTURE

This is the famous cover his book The Leviathan which shows the Leviathan (or the
absolute monarch) wearing a crown and holding a sword (a symbol of military power) and a
hooked staff
 ( symbol of religious power). His body is literally the “body politic” as it is made up of
millions of his subjects. He is thus also literally the “head” of state. He stands above the two
pillars of his power: the army (the column on the left) and the established church (on the
right). NEXT

SLIDE 5 KEY CONCEPTS

READ FROM SLIDE AND EXPLAIN

SLIDE 6 KEY CONCEPTS CONTD

KEEP READING AND EXPLAINING

Balance Of Power: A balance of power is a state of stability between competing forces. In

international relations, it refers to equilibrium among countries or alliances to prevent any
one entity from becoming too strong and, thus, gaining the ability to enforce its will upon
the rest. It is a system in which peace can be kept among a large number of states when
there is no hegemon among them. The sides can constantly work to keep any one of them
from getting too strong and threatening the others. NEXT

SLIDE 7 Twentieth Century Classical Realists

Morgenthau was German-Jewish who migrated to the US to save himself from Hitler’s anti-
Jew policy. He became famous in American fame in the late 1940s when he came up with
his theory of Political Realism to offset the idealism of the pre-WW2 Western world. He
assimilated the ideas of the classical theorists. In Politics among Nations, Morgenthau
defines international politics as “the struggle for power” and “power politics.” “The
aspiration for power,” he wrote, “is “the distinguishing element of international politics.”
“The struggle for power is universal in time and space and is an undeniable fact of
experience.” (a constant)

Morgenthau developed his philosophy in the 1920s and 1930s under the influence of
Friedrich Nietzsche and other German thinkers. His resulting pessimism and realism about
the human appetite for power and evil led to a profound culture shock when he arrived in
the United States, with its "naive" political liberalism and optimistic faith in science. But
Morgenthau's philosophy also had another, more neglected aspect: his attention to the
moral obligations that he believed should guide politics. NEXT

SLIDE 7 & 8

READ AND EXPLAIN

He set forth six principles of political realism:

1. Politics is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature.
2. Statesmen conduct themselves in terms of interest defined as power.

3. Interest determines political conduct within the political and cultural context which
foreign policy is formulated.

4. Prudence is the supreme virtue in international politics.

5. Nations are entities that pursue their interests as defined by power and should not be
judged by universal moral principles.

6. Political realism rejects the legalistic-moralistic approach to international politics.

Balance of Power

It is the purpose of all BOP to maintain the stability of the system without destroying the
multiplicity of the elements composing it. If the goal were stability alone, it could be
achieved by allowing one element to destroy or overwhelm the others and take their place.
Since the goal is stability plus the preservation of all the elements of the system the
equilibrium must aim at preventing any element from gaining ascendancy over the others.
The means employed to maintain BOP consist in allowing the different elements to pursue
their opposing tendencies up to the point where the tendency of one is not so strong as to
overcome the tendency of the others but strong enough to prevent the others from
overcoming its own. Basically the idea of checks and balances by opposite and rival
interests; BOP provides stability but the stability is never very strong because the interests
of the states can change continuously,

 Prudence/ diplomacy

Morgenthau identified the elements of national power as geography, natural resources,

industrial capacity, military preparedness, population, national character, national morale,
the quality of diplomacy, and the quality of government. He judged the quality of diplomacy
as the most important of these factors. A nation’s diplomacy, he wrote, “combines those
different factors into an integrated whole, gives them direction and weight, and awakens
their slumbering potentialities by giving them the breadth of actual power.”

The main ideas of Political Realism discussed here:

Human nature, power politics, seeing things as they are and not as they ought to be, self-
help, fear, BOP, national interest is supreme hence prudence in FP.