Rena Ju

International Relations
October 5, 2015
Realism
1. Definition and characteristics of realism
a. Realism is a school of thought that explains
international relations in terms of power.
b. States rationally pursue their self-interest
regardless of morality, religion or other cultural factors.
c. Foundation of realism is the approach to achieve
common good through dominance.
d. Realists recognize the importance of military power
e. And favor the use of it whenever necessary; however,
they do not always do so.
2. Realism in the history of the world
a. During the warring states period in China 2000 years
ago, Sun Tzu, a strategist advise leaders of states to use
power to achieve their interests and argued that moral
reasons were not very useful to the state leaders.
b. Thucydides in Greece in the fifth century BCE analyzed
the Peloponnesian War using relative power of states
and the importance of dominance in solving the
collective goods problem.
c. In Renaissance Italy, Niccolo Machiavelli advised princes
to manipulate military alliances as one of the ways to
stay in power.
d. Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century proposed the state
of nature saying that people naturally seek their selfinterests, thus a central power is necessary for
achieving a common goal.
3. Realism comparing to idealism
a. Idealism emphasizes the importance of morality, religion
and other cultural factors that make up the
psychological motives for decision makers.
b. International laws and international organizations are
important in determining the states or other actors
behaviors in the international system.
i. Human nature is good.
ii. Actors in the international system have the
potential toand will tend to choose towork
together to achieve a common goal.
4. Power
a. Often defined as the ability to get another actor to do
what it would not otherwise have done/or not do what it
would have done
i. Influences others more than other influence
itself

ii. Disadvantage: hard to know what others would

have done in the absence of influence from the
actor
iii. Circular logic: power explains influence, influence
measures power
iv. Power is not influence, but the potential to
influence others
b. Power as capability
i. Tangible
1) Long term
a) Amounts of population
b) Amounts of territory
c) Economy: GDP as a useful indicator
but not always a precise one
d) Geopolitics: geography in relation to
military capabilities
2) Short term
a) Strength of military forces, including
the capacity of military industries
b) Quality of bureaucracy
c) Diplomatic skills
ii. Intangible: the ability of a state to deploy its
capabilities effectively
1) Long term
a) Political culture
b) Patriotism
c) Education of citizens
d) Strength of scientific and technological
bases
e) Credibility
f) Soft power: power of ideas
i).
Domestic: religion, ideology,
nationalism
ii).
International: form international
rules of behavior or shape how
others think
iii).
Underlie use of reciprocity and
identity
2) Short term
a) National will
b) Support for the government
(legitimacy)
c) Loyalty of army to its leaders
iii. Trade-offs among power capabilities always exist
iv. Some elements are fungible, they can be
converted into others
v. Realists recognize that power/dominance is not
the only approach to collective goods problem

vi. States can only have power relative to others;

absolute changes in a states capability do not
matter, it is about whether or not a state is falling
behind others
vii. A high GDP may indicate that a state has a strong
power/winning wars, but it does not mean that
the state can maintain the influence as situation
evolve over a longer term and as elements of
complexity and luck are involved
5. International system: what is considered a state and how
states interact
a. Anarchy
i. Absence of central government that can
enforce rules
ii. The power of one state is only countered by other
states
iii. States must rely on self-help with supplements
from alliances and constraint of power by
international norms
iv. Realist: states should pay careful attention to
what others states can do (capabilities)
rather than intentions
b. Norms
i. States share expectations about what behavior
is considered proper
ii. Norms change over time but by little
c. Sovereignty
i. A government is the autonomous authority and
has the right to do whatever it wishes to its own
territory
ii. States are equal in status
iii. States do influence others through trade, alliances
and wars, though they do not have the right to
meddle in others domestic affairs
iv. Sovereignty in a way allows inhumane treatment
to a population
v. Making enforcement of international agreement
difficult
vi. In recent years, the international community
increasingly interferes with states internal
affairs such as human right issues with the
improvement in technology, which makes it harder
for states to maintain sovereignty
vii. Respect to territorial integrity of states is
important
1) Less important with the trade-based
societies

2) Embassies are viewed as part of the territory

of the home state, not the state in which
they are located
viii. Security dilemma as a result of sovereignty and
self-help system
1) Downward spiral: states actions taken to
ensure their security threaten the security of
other states or the international community
as a whole. The response of other states
increases the threat to security for the first
state.
d. Balance of power
i. The most reliable brake on the power of one
state, preventing it from becoming dominant
ii. Maintain stability; recurring wars that adjust
balance of power
iii. Alliances play a key role
1) Allying against a great power to balance
2) Allying to balance threat rather than power
3) Allying to play rival great powers against
each other
e. Great powers and middle powers
i. States that have real influence beyond their
immediate locality
ii. Great powers:
1) Military strength that only other great
powers are capable in defeating
2) Strong economy
3) Tend to have shared world view that extends
beyond their borders
iii. Middle powers
1) Not as industrialized as great powers
2) Many have regional influence
3) Some have specialized capabilities but are
small
f. Power distribution
i. Neorealism explains international patterns of
activities using distribution of power rather than
internal makeup of individual states
ii. Polarity: number of power centers in the
international system
1) Multipolar: powers that are not allied, more
peaceful in the way that actors adjust
themselves to balance power through wars
2) Tri-polar: two against one
3) Bipolar: two great rival alliances blocs
4) Unipolar: (hegemony) a single center of
power around which all other actors evolve
iii. Power transition theory

1) When a rising power is challenging the

status of the existing great power, war is
likely to happen
2) Tension may build up as a states status is
not improving but its absolute capabilities
are
3) Peace results when one state in firmly in the
top position without challengers and
status of other powers correspond to their
actual capabilities
iv. Hegemony
1) A single power dominates the rules and
arrangements by which international
activities are conducted
2) Hegemonic stability
a) Hegemon serves as a central
government in the international
system
b) Reducing collective goods problem
c) Hegemons tend to have an inherent
interest in promoting free trade over
which it dominates
6. Alliances
a. A long term coalition of states that
coordinate/cooperate to achieve a common goal
b. Quicker, cheaper and more effective way to compete
with a rival
i. Purpose
1) Augmenting member states powers by
pooling capabilities
2) Small states: important power element
3) Greater states: important in shaping the
structure of game (power distribution)
ii. Realists: Alliances result from responses to
perceives threats; may shift as short term interest
shifts
iii. Alliances may deepen security dilemma
iv. Alliance cohesion: the degree of ease to form
alliance of a state, usually when states share
interests and when the alliance becomes
institutional and habitual
v. Great powers usually form alliances with smaller
states (client states) and use extended
deterrence to threaten other great power not to
attack client states
7. Strategy
a. Actors use strategy in bargaining with one another
pursuing the best outcomes

b. Classical realists: statecraft, management of state

affairs and effectiveness in maneuvering among
sovereign states
i. Choosing the most suitable power capability to
develop
ii. Strategies force states to mobilize some of its
capabilities relating to its strategies; strategies
amplify power
iii. Deterrence uses threat to prevent other actors
from doing what the state does not desire
iv. Compellence threat of force to make another
actor do something
1) Escalation: a series of negative sanctions
od increasing severity applied in order of
induce another actor to take some action
v. States are assumed to be rational
1) They identify their interests and put
priority on some
2) Realists: state interests
a) Maximizing material power
b) Increasing money in the economics
3) They are able to perform a cost-benefit
analysis