Department of British StudiesFaculty of world Studies

University of Tehran

POWER AND STRUCTURE I SEMESTER 2

BY Pantea mohebi zanganeh

 American political scientist

The father of NEOREALISM

Theory of

International Politics 

Kenneth Neal Waltz

1- Anarchy2- States as rational

actors 3-Survival

security dilemma

Power of the state Military capabilities

Polarity multipolar

 bipolar

unipolar

    

REALISM

 Survival , Security Anarchy Power Security dilemma Balance of power Resources for protecting

Because of the consequences of the mistake state must be cautious

in assessing the intention of the both foes and allies.

NEOREALISM

Waltz use of term security not to dominant the world but rather the minimum power needed to assure the state’s survival

Great power territory and raw

materials

Struggle : valuable resources

territory population

SECURITY

1-View the world :Satisfied, status quo state , fear about surrounded by expansionist state 2- Privileges security over power States pay high and take risk to protect what they have

low risk for improving their position in the system

but realism states attempting to maximize their relative power

therefore Neorealism theory can’t explain behavior of great powers in modern history because many of large wars were started by the states that prefer to expansion because they dissatisfied by their posses

NEOREALISM

States see their possessing little of value and decide to improve their situation by

expansion ,to maximize it.

such as Alexander the great

Dissatisfied

central goal is to increase their power, seek world dominion

Some limit their expansionist goal such as sadam hossein

They trigger balancing behavior, waltz believe that these state don’t want join the weaker side

Revisionist state

Neorealist core tenet is that state under anarchy fear for their survival as sovereign actors

Neoliberals argue that state fear being cheated by others, realism believe that not only cheated, but also being dominated or destroyed by others

Neoliberals focus on the problem of cheating for cooperation, realist believe that relative gains problem is important too for cooperation

Distinguish Neorealism from Neolibralism

Neorealist : Threats came from nature not other states Therefore They dose not recognize between expansion

of revisionist states and the peaceful objective of status-quo states. but traditional realist distinguished between satiated states and hunger states and

Realists sought to highlight the manipulation, accumulation, and balancing of power by sober unsentimental statesmen focusing above all on the limits.

Many realists now advance the very assumptions and causal claims in opposition to which they traditionally, and still, claim to define themselves.

Is Anybody Still a Relist?

This expansion would be unproblematic, if it took place on the basis of the further elaboration of an unchanging set of core realist premises.

Recent realist theory has become a hindrance rather than a help In structuring theoretical debates.

Contemporary realists lack an explicit nontrivial set of core assumptions.

2 criteria that a conceptually productive paradigm must have:

coherence – distinctiveness

Its assumptions clearly differentiate it from recognized theoretical alternatives.

Many of the contemporary forms of realism lack both coherence and distinctiveness.

Coherence ,Distinctiveness

Realism assumes the existence of a set of “conflict groups,” each organized as a unitary political actor that pursues distinctive goals within an anarchic setting.

the ability to draw a sharp distinction between anarchy among actors and hierarchy within them is essential to the logic of realist theory

The second realist assumption is that state preferences are fixed and confilictual, but they display far less agreement about the precise nature of such preferences.

states “at a minimum, seek their own preservation

and, at a maximum, drive for universal domination”

The ability of a state to access to material resources, is proportional to its underlying power,

Therefore It follows that the strong do what they can

and the weak suffer what they must.

The Primacy of Material Capabilities

seek to define a distinct and coherent realist paradigm with reference to a set of assumptions and stress on the existence of rational actors in an anarchic setting.

States want to expanding their influence �over their international environment, force and the

threat of force are preeminent for states to resolving the resulting confilicts�

Minimal Realists

Many of the its alternative paradigms, share the same assumptions, so minimal realism fails to distinguish realism from them

They have any distinctive assumptions about the source and resolution of conflict

Realists have successfully found innovative ways to build on core realist assumptions

to explain new aspects of world politics.

Refocusing Empirical Test

1-Testing theories is a way of evaluating the assumptions that underlie them.

2-Become more consistent with one another and with fundamental social theory.

3-This would open a number of new areas for empirical confrontations.

Why Reformulate Realism?

The useful way to judge the power of a social scientific paradigm is by examining what it is able to exclude, in this way, the realists paradigm is degenerating.

Conclusion

Legro and Moravcsik mischaracterize realism as a paradigm based solely on the objective, material capabilities of states.

Also, In addition, Legro and Moravcsik fault the inclusion of domestic variables in several

neoclassical realist theories.

Brother can you spare your paradigm?