Classical Realism

Scholars:

Machiavelli:
Was obsessed with uniting Italy and he advocated the theme that ends justify means. In
his book “the Prince he emphasized the rule of power.

Carr:
In his book “Twenty Years Crises” (1919 – 1939) criticized the liberals for their wishful
thinking and they don’t deal with facts on the grounds, he also emphasized on the rule of
power but he was short of identifying means of measuring power.

Morgenthau:
His book was the bible of International Relations, He had a positivist approach (get
methodological aspects of natural science and apply on international relations) it and he
presented relative measurements of power in terms of international power. He was the
one who clearly defined the balance of power.

Morgenthau Six Principles of Classical Realism

1- Politics is governed by objective law which have their root in human nature.
2- The key to understanding international politics is the concept of interest defined in
terms of power.
3- The form and nature of state power will vary in time, place and context but the
concept of interest remains consistent.
4- Universal moral principles do not guide state behavior.
5- There is no universally agreed set f moral principles.
6- Intellectually, the political sphere is autonomous from every other sphere of
human concern, whether they be legal, moral or economic.

Brief:

Greek states: Athena and Sparta were the most powerful states at that time, the balance of
power that existed between both states provided the relative stability the Greek city states
enjoyed at that time according to many realists.

Realism is widely regarded as the most influential theoretical tradition in the IR even by
the harshest critics because of the following:
1- Ancient philosophical heritage
2- Powerful critique of liberal internationalism
3- Its influence of the practical diplomacy

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  International system is an anarchic system (absence on international force that
regulates relationships between states).
 International Relations are best understood by focusing on the distribution of
power among the states.
 Power is hard to measure as its distribution among states changes over time.
 War and peace are two faces of the same coins as they are natural in human
history, and war is deeply rooted in the human nature.
 It focus on hard power (Military).
 States are interest based with prudence.
 How much power you have determines your ability to achieve your interests.
 Realism are obsessed with the 4 S’s:
1- State
2- Security
3- Strategy
4- And Status qua and realism were accused of advocating status qua to serve
those who are benefiting of from it.

State would be concerned about their interests; the top of the state priorities and interests
is survivability which is connected with security and means for providing security is the
struggle of power within the international system. If this struggle for power was kept
unregulated it could lead to war, therefore balance of power between core states should
take place.

 What matter for realists are core states.

 Realism can be perceived as cruel theory as it has no sympathy to small states and
what matters is to keep the balance of power between the core states to maintain
peace and stability.
 It ignore the impact of international system
 It ignores the impact of economic

Liberals and Realism

 Realists believe that the human history is repetitive – it is the same play with
different actors while liberals perceive it as progressive
 For realists the state is unitary actor and controls the decision making process
while liberalism has different centers and influencers on decision making process.
 Realism is not an ethical or moral theory, ethics and moral will be only used if
they achieve the state interests unlike realism.

Realism as a Methodology
In terms of methodology Realism is a problem solving methodology as it recognizes
peace and war.

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Neo-Realism

It is a correction of classical realism as those theories are in constant evolution as they are
competing with each other.

Europe became dominated by liberals and you can rarely find realists, realism was
developed in North America.

Mearsheimer published a chapter “Back to the Future” (1990) where he predicted that the
evolution of international system would result of a similar situation of 19th century where
we will have different powers instead on uni-polar or bi-polar powers.

1945 – 1990 political economy emerged, so no more the state is the key actors, as
Realists ignored the impact of the economy; neo realists recognized the importance of the
international political economy.

Structural impact:

For liberals the more domestic order the state have, the more stable international system
(the state impact the international system) – inside outside impact.

For neo realists the nature of the international system is determined by the interaction
between the state (international system impacts the behavior of the state) – outside inside
impact.

During the cold was The United States and The Former Soviet Union had the same
foreign policy although they have two different domestic order, Waltz explanations was
this is because of the anarchic and bipolar international system (outside inside impact).

“In terms of methodology, in realism paradigm there are levels of analysis approach,
which means you need to investigate the behavior of the state according to those levels in
order to understand it.
1- Leadership
2- Domestic order
3- International system.”

Neo realists advocated the bipolar international system unlike realists who advocated
unipolar system.

Waltz advocated that bipolar system will create certainty from where the danger will
animate. For Waltz unipolar will go for hegemony.

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What differentiate Realists from Neo Realists?

Key characteristics of the international system are differentiated from the domestic order.
The key characteristics are:
1- International system is anarchy
2- Character of units (states) are identical – anarchic system force them to pursue
security before anything else (identical behavior)
3- States differ in their capabilities.