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Realism and International Politics
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From the ashes of World War One rose one of the prominent political theories in international relations. It began as a counter to the idealist theorists who were more concerned with focusing on understanding the reasons for war in an effort to find a solution for its being. Realism rests itself on three fundamental principles; statism, survival and self help. While these cornerstones create a very strong case for realism and one that I believe is a very viable theory, they also have holes in them that do no allow realism to be the dominant theory in international relations “Statism is the term given to the idea of the state as the legitimate representative of the collective will of the people.” In a realists mind the state is the hub of the action. It has sovereignty within its border and therefore is able to create and enforce laws as it sees fit. This allows the state to establish security, which according to Thomas Hobbes satisfies our most basic fear of a violent death. Once the issue of security is resolved, then we are able to proceed with a civil society. Internationally is a slightly different story. In international waters states security is not provided by a sovereign and therefore states must contend with each other in order to achieve it. Security in the international forum can be achieved through the accumulation of more power than neighbouring states possess. From a realist perspective the eventual build up of power by one country leads to hegemony and eventually to something that they refer to as hegemonic stability theory. This contends that international order is dependent on the existence of a dominant state. The second of the three corners of realism is survival. To a realist, survival is a simple matter; those with more power stand a better chance of survival. Naturally a realist believes this to be the ultimate goal that all states must pursue. While a nation will have other goals as well “beyond the survival motive, the aims of states may be varied” In an effort to ensure survival a state must follow a different set of ethics from the collection that it would use when dealing with domestic affairs.
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