Home POLI 243 Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Wednesday, January 7, 2015 CC-BY-NC
Lecture 2 - Realism

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  • Classical Idealism
  • Clemenceau: “war is the traditional way states resolve their disputes"
    • world war 1 was merely the last in a long string of wars, thinks alliances are the answer
  • Early Theorizing in International Relations
    • Realism
      • a set of theories built on assumptions, really came about as a dispute to idealism
      • Hans Morgenthau: writes in the 30s, has a big impact int he 40s and 50s.
      • Reinholt lieber: a theologian who starts writing about IR. An american who in the late 1930s is watching europe and the Nazi regime. Thinking that we’re safe in the US and wondering if we have an obligation to intervene, starts attacking the idealist principles from a different angle.
      • Carr: diplomat for britain, wrote the 20 years crisis (1918-1938). Lays foundations for new theories in realism. Said idealists think war is the worst thing, but not everyone thinks that. People might want to use force to achieve liberty, democracy, etc. more than they value peace. Those who have lost wars might value wars more than they value peace, idealists don’t have a response to this. Idealists have started at the bottom of the list, describing what they want and prescribing a solution without giving predictions. Need to reverse the list.
        • He would prefer that britain act in power politics. Things that flow from a realist approach are not popular with the public.
    • Classical Realism
      • Humans have a will to survive, which makes them selfish.
        • Lieber: as a christian theologian “I believe the story of adam and eve in the bible and in the story they got knowledge and discovered bad things and basically they’re sinful.” Humans are not perfect and are not perfectible, they are evil in many ways.
      • The wil to survive equals a will to dominate
        • Morgenthau: People want to live and in order to live tehye have to control their environment.
      • This creates a competition to dominate, which in turn triggers a search for power.
        • Idealists emphasize harmony of interests, shared interests, cooperation works. Realists stress competition.
    • Kenneth Waltz
      • Social sciences developed after world war 2, Realism emerges as the prominent school of thought.
      • Focusing on states is not going to bring the answer, focusing on human nature isn’t either. People don’t switch from good to evil overnight. What changes that brings about war? What causes people to do bad things? Have to examine the international system to find the answer.
      • Remnants of idealism: United nations replaces league of nations.
        for realists, ww2 ends and the cold war begins.
      • In Man, the State and War, waltz questioned the utility of debating human nature.
      • War comes about not from human nature, but from the contexts that states find themselves in.
      • Theory of International Politics
      • Structural realism
        • Ordering principle -> no hierarchy
        • differentiation of the parts -> state actors
        • differences in capabilities -> power politics. This is why wars start, fluctuations in capabilities.
        • International relations need to be studied as something distinct from other parts of poli sci, needs to be different from comparative politics etc.
    • Structural Realism:
      • If you want to understand how sates behave you have to examine the international system.
      • Assumptions
        • states are the most important actors
        • states are unitary and rational actors.
          *false assumption, there is no Canada that operates by itself, it has citizens and a government and they may be divided. But for the purposes of modeling a larger system we make this simplifying assumption
        • Waltz assumes the international system is anarchic. There is no world government.
        • states seek to maximize power.
  • Assuming rational action by states:
    • actors are doing things with a purpose in mind. Important assumption, not how everything happens in life. Human behavior is often not rational calculation.
    • Actors have perfect information. Think of buying a car, do you go to every dealership? Read every consumer report? etc. Can’t have perfect information.
    • Actors know their preferences and can rank them.
    • Actors know all possible options including the consequences of each
    • Actors calculate the costs and benefits associated with each option.
  • Theory has 4 tasks
    • describe the past
    • predict the future
    • provide a normative outlook
    • give a prescription
  • the 1930s was problem after problem for idealist theory, the league of nations is failing.