Realism (International Relations)

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The realism is a school of thought within the political science discipline of International Relations , which deals with the character and distribution of power in the international system apart sets. According to a realistic view, the most important goal of every state is its own survival. The best way to ensure this is that he is more powerful than his potential opponents. With this approach, realism is opposed to the predominantly optimistic approach of idealism .

The realism founded the International Relations as systematic social science and research. Most of the following theories were formulated either in connection with him or on the basis of his rejection.

history

In the 1930s, some scholars, such as Frederick Sherwood Dunn, Frederick L. Schuman, Georg Schwarzenberger, and Nicholas J. Spykman , began to question a prevailing consensus in international relations that later realists disliked as "idealism". Because, according to a founding member of the Institute of International Studies at Yale University , international relations should deal primarily with the "special kind of power relations" that would constitute a "community in the absence of authority." In contrast, international relations at that time were under the influence of the First World War and mainly tried to find ways to a peaceful world order.

From the end of the 1930s, both world political events and the analyzes based on them discredited idealism. Edward Hallett Carr , a former British diplomat, published in 1939 his influential work The Twenty Years Crisis , while Hans Morgenthau in his equally influential book Politics Among Nations : (German power and peace developed one of the first theorists a systematic alternative to the idealism) he Realism (realism) called. They justified their criticism primarily anthropologically, in that they declared idealism to be incompatible with human nature, which strives for power. Carr, Morgenthau and others referred mainly to the writings of Thucydides , Thomas Hobbes and Niccolò Machiavelli . Through this recourse to classical writings of political theory and historiography and the long scientific dominance of these theses, the term classical realism emerged for this explanatory approach in international politics during the increasing diversification of realism .

As a result of the Cold War and the introduction of behavioral methods into international relations, the explanatory approach of international politics shifted. Kenneth Waltz stood out in particular , who found the anthropological derivation of the classical realists to be inadequate, and in Man, the State and War from 1953, he argued that wars primarily come about through the lack of a hierarchy in international politics. a thesis that is based on Rousseau's fragment De l'etat de guerre . Waltz published his magnum opus, Theory of International Politics, in 1979. In it he stated that the anarchic structure of the international system required a logic of self-help. Since Waltz systemic, strong microeconomic effort embossed approach his explanatory model was not only a neo-realism , but also as structural realism (structural realism) known. Several authors, including the controversial in Germany for their publication The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy known John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt , developed a theoretical dichotomy within the neo-realism. Mearsheimer, as outlined in The Tragedy of Great Power Politics from 2001, and other offensive realists assume that a state can only feel relatively safe when it dominates the international system hegemonic. In doing so, they dispute the thesis of defensive realists like Waltz and Walt, who fundamentally consider the pursuit of hegemony to be too risky and too far removed from immediate survival in the state system.

theory

Basic theory of political realism

The realism is based on two basic assumptions:

  1. On the one hand, he regards states as a monolithic block ( black box theory); the domestic politics plays no role in the formulation of foreign policy. On the other hand, the “realists” assume that humans are involved in the contradictions of norm and reality, of creative and destructive possibilities of realizing freedom. Fear results from these contradictions, and fear results from the attempt to gain security by acquiring power. There is an open, multipolar state system without a central decision-making or sanctioning authority. The sovereign nation states are in a permanent struggle for survival among themselves and their foreign policy is determined exclusively by this struggle.
  2. The international system is anarchic and incapable of developing permanent overarching power structures . The most important state goal is its own survival and this can best be achieved if one state is more powerful than the others (the potential opponents). That is why states strive for power. The central variables for the power position of a state are its size (for some authors also the territorial structure), its economic strength and its military strength. An important assumption of realism is that power at the international level is a zero-sum game . Well-known representatives of realism, both in theory and in practice, are Henry Kissinger and Hans Morgenthau .

Realism also provides a political ethic whose minimalist principles emphasize societies' ability to develop themselves and classify teleological political practices as dangerous.

The 6 points of classical realism

With the second edition of the work " Politics Among Nations ", Hans Morgenthau published the six points of political realism:

Existence of objective social laws in politics
Political behavior and society are determined by objective laws. Its roots lie in human nature. In order to improve society, one must understand the laws that it obeys. Observance of the objectively considered laws of political action is the surest strategy for political success. The theory consists in examining facts and making them meaningful through reason.
Power and interest as principles of the political
The guide and signpost through international politics, as well as through historical-political reality, is the concept of interest understood in the sense of power. The term represents the link between reason and facts. Reason tries to understand international politics as well as historical-political reality.
The national interest
The concept of interest, which is defined as power , is for the realist an objective category of universal validity. This category remains unaffected by both temporal and spatial circumstances. However, the concept of interest must always be understood under the current political circumstances. To this end, it is necessary to take into account the goals which states are striving for in their foreign policy and which they need power to implement. A military, at times barbaric, policy of conquest or an enlightened regulatory policy can be aimed for.
The limits of universal morality / problem of the applicability of a universal concept of morality in the complex world of international politics.
States cannot act according to individual morals. Statesmen cannot rely on moral virtues such as trust, loyalty, and honesty. However, there is also a moral significance in political action. This pursuit of moral goals often runs the risk of the opposite of what should be achieved. In politics, moral goals must be pursued in a realistic manner.
The difference between national and universal morality
The greatest political injustice is when nations presume to declare their concept of morality to be universal. Moral ambitions of the nations are often put forward, so the underlying interests must be analyzed, only then can the assessment of the positive or negative consequences of this policy be made.
Politics of the autonomous sphere
The political sphere should be seen as an autonomous sphere of meaning. This autonomy counts more than the economic. So politics counts more than the economy. The laws of politics are assessed and examined with the same methodological rigor as economists examine the economy.

Realism in Germany

In Germany, Carlo Masala , Werner Link and Christian Hacke try to apply realism empirically; Gottfried-Karl Kindermann , Alexander Siedschlag and Christoph Rohde expand Morgenthaus's monovariable approach with the help of non-revision analysis categories.

literature

German

  • Christoph Frei : Hans J. Morgenthau - An intellectual biography. Haupt, Bern 1994.
  • Gert Krell : World Views and World Order. Introduction to the theory of international relations. 4. revised and act. Edition. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2009.
  • Andreas Jacobs: Realism. In: Siegfried Schieder , Manuela Spindler (Ed.): Theories of international relations. 3rd edition, Verlag Barbara Budrich, Opladen 2010, pp. 39-64.
  • Gottfried-Karl Kindermann (1963): Hans Morgenthau and the theoretical foundations of political realism. In: Hans Morgenthau, 1963: Power and Peace. Gütersloh, pp. 19–47.
  • Alexander Reichwein: Morgenthau, Vietnam and Concern for America: On the understanding of the state and democracy of a “fairly German” liberal realist . In: Jodok Troy, Christoph Rohde (ed.): Power, Law, Democracy - Hans J. Morgenthaus' understanding of the state. Baden-Baden, Nomos (series State Understandings) 2015, pp. 95–140.
  • Alexander Reichwein: Hans J. Morgenthau and the "Twenty Years' Crisis". A contextualized interpretation of realistic thinking in international relations teaching. Dissertation. Frankfurt am Main 2013, will be published by VS / Springer 2017.
  • Christoph Rohde: Hans J. Morgenthau and world political realism. Publishing house for social sciences, Wiesbaden 2004.
  • Christoph Rohde: The state as myth and religion: Hans Morgenthaus criticism of nationalist universalism and imperialism . In: Jodok Troy, Christoph Rohde (ed.): Power, Law, Democracy - Hans J. Morgenthaus' understanding of the state. Baden-Baden, Nomos (series State Understandings) 2015, pp. 73–94.
  • Alexander Siedschlag (ed.): Realistic perspectives on international politics. Leske & Budrich, Opladen 2001.
  • Jodok Troy & Christoph Rohde (eds.): Power, Law, Democracy - Hans J. Morgenthaus's understanding of the state. Baden-Baden, Nomos (series understanding of the state).

English

  • Richard K. Ashley: Political Realism and the Human Interests. In: International Studies Quarterly. (1981) 25, pp. 204-236.
  • Duncan Bell (Ed.): Political Thought and International Relations: Variations on a Realist Theme . University Press, Oxford 2008.
  • Hartmut Behr, Felix Roesch (eds.): Hans J. Morgenthau: The Concept of the Political. (Translation of Morgenthaus La Notion du 'Politique', 1933). Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills / Basingstoke 2012.
  • Ken Booth: Security in anarchy: Utopian realism in theory and practice. In: International Affairs. 67 (3), 1991, pp. 527-545.
  • Campbell Craig: Glimmer of a New Leviathan: Total War in the Realism of Niebuhr, Morgenthau, and Waltz. Columbia University Press, New York 2003.
  • Tim Dunne, Brian Schmidt: Realism. In: John Baylis et al .: The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations. 4th edition. University Press, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-929777-1 , pp. 92-106.
  • Christoph Frei: Hans Morgenthau: An Intellectual Biography. Louisiana University Press, Baton Rouge 2001.
  • Christian Hacke, Karl-Gottfried Kindermann, Kai M. Schellhorn (Eds.): The Heritage, Challenge, and Future of Realism. In Memoriam Hans J. Morgenthau (1904–1980). V & R University Press, Göttingen 2005.
  • Oliver Jütersonke: Morgenthau, International Law, and Realism. University Press, Oxford 2010.
  • Richard Ned Lebow: The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders . University Press, Cambridge 2003.
  • Steven E. Lobell, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, Norrin M. Ripsman (Eds.): Neoclassical Realism, the state and Foreign Policy . University Press, Cambridge 2009.
  • GO Mazur (Ed.): One Hundred Year Commemoration to the Life of Hans Morgenthau (1904-2004). Semenko Foundation, New York 2004.
  • Sean Molloy: The Hidden History of Realism: A Genealogy of Power Politics . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2006.
  • AJH Murray: Reconstructing Realism: Between Power Politics and Cosmopolitan Ethics . Keele University Press, Edinburgh 1997.
  • Mihaela Neacsu: Hans J. Morgenthau's Theory of International Relations: Disenchantment and Re-Enchantment. Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills / Basingstoke 2009.
  • Alexander Reichwein: Classical Realism . In: Patrick James (ed.): Oxford Bibliographies in International Relations . Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 2018.
  • Alexander Reichwein: The Tradition of Neoclassical Realism. In: Asle Toje, Barbara Kunz (Eds.): Neoclassical Realism in European Politics: Bringing Power Back In . Manchester University Press / Palgrave Macmillan, Manchester / New York 2012, pp. 30–60.
  • Alexander Reichwein: Rethinking Morgenthau in the German Context. In: International Relations Online Working Paper Series. 2011/4. '
  • Christoph Rohde (2005): Current Forms of Foreign Policy Realism in Morgenthau's Tradition. In: Christian Hacke / Gottfried-Karl Kindermann / Kai M. Schellhorn, 2005: The Heritage, Challenge and Future of Realism . Göttingen, pp. 49-69.
  • Joel H. Rosenthal: Righteous Realists: Political Realism, Responsible Power, and American Culture in the Nuclear Age . Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1991.
  • Greg Russell: Hans J. Morgenthau and the Ethics of American statecraft. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1991.
  • William E. Scheuerman: Morgenthau: Realism and beyond . Polity Press, Cambridge 2009.
  • William E. Scheuerman: The (classical) Realist vision of global reform. In: International Theory. 2 (2), 2010, pp. 246-282.
  • William E. Scheuerman: The Realist Case for Global Reform. Polity Press, Cambridge 2011.
  • Brian Schmidt: Competing Realist Conceptions of Power. In: Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 523-549.
  • Robert Schuett: Political Realism, Freud, and Human Nature in International Relations . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2010.
  • Robert Schuett & Miles Hollingworth (Eds.): The Edinburgh Companion to Political Realism . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2018.
  • Michael Joseph Smith: Realist Thought from Weber to Kissinger . Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1986.
  • Vibeke S. Tjalve: Realist Strategies of Republican Peace: Niebuhr, Morgenthau, and the Politics of Patriotic Dissent . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2008.
  • Asle Toje, Barbara Kunz (Eds.): Neoclassical Realism in European Politics: Bringing Power Back In . Manchester University Press / Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2012.
  • Michael C. Williams (Ed.): Realism Reconsidered. The Legacy of Hans J. Morgenthau in International Relations . University Press, Oxford 2007.
  • Michael C. Williams: The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations . University Press, Cambridge 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Jacobs: Realism. In: Siegfried Schieder , Manuela Spindler (Ed.): Theories of international relations. 3rd edition, Verlag Barbara Budrich, Opladen 2010, pp. 39–64, here p. 39.
  2. ^ A b Brian Schmidt: Competing Realist Conceptions of Power. In: Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Vol. 33, No. 3, p. 526.
  3. ^ John Baylis, Steve Smith, Patricia Owens: The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations. Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 96.