My Second Day of Class(Realism)

7/28(Mon)

Today is my second day of class. Its main argument is about Realism in IR.
Realism is one of major IR theories.
The instructor presented an overview of realism to us in the begging of the class.

The way of seeing the world politics for realism is:
1.War is natural and inevitable
2.International system is anarchy
3.States are fundamentally concerned with national interest
4.Power is key to national interest(survive, military strength, wealth, etc)
5.Relative gains is better than absolute gains for realism
6.Talk is cheap(because the strength to survive is much important for realism)

International System
●The international system is anarchic
●"No government over governments"
●No 911 in international system
●Self-help
These descriptions of international system suggest that there is no such people or organization like police and firefighters to protect you or save you in the world. In addition, there is no absolute authorities to restrict each state's behavior. Therefore, you cannot rely on any other states. That is why you should protect you by yourself and cannot ask for help when you need it because international system is anarchic.

Key Actors
●The states
●Rational, unitary actors calculating on the basis of their "national interest" ('Rational' in this context means that the states know the means to achieve their goals.)
●State power - the key means to seek for national interest
　　　　　　　 - the primary determinant of international relations

Balance of Power
●the ratio of power between states and alliance of states
●balancing occurs out of fear for survival
●war occurs due to imbalances
●balance of power creates three types of polarity
1.Biopolarity(like the U.S and Soviet Union during Cold War)
2.Multipolarity
3.Unipolarity
During the class we discussed which polarity is better for stability in world politics. Most students told that multipolarity is better because, according to one student, they can check one another.

The flaws of Realism
Realism neglects
●non-state actors such as NGO or individual people
●domestic politics
●morality
●weak states
●human rights
These are some parts of explanation of realism. I am quite convinced with its theory. We cannot deny the fact that the state as well as an individual has interest and desire. That is why we sometimes conflict each other and wage wars. What is impressed in the article 'One world, rival theories' is the sentence, "a ruthless pragmatism about power can actually yield a more peaceful world." I agree with the statement because just an ideal plan which is drawing a perfect world cannot help the conflicts in the world.