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    Neorealism Addresses The Limitations of Classical Realism

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    Saed Kakei
    Neorealism addresses limitations of classical realism by focusing less on human nature and more on how the anarchic structure of the international system shapes state behavior. Classical realism views states as rational actors pursuing power in an anarchic system. Neorealism, as developed by Kenneth Waltz, emphasizes that states are influenced more by their external environment than internal decision-making. Neorealism argues bipolar systems are more stable than multipolar ones due to decreased competition between great powers. However, critics argue this can also increase security dilemmas and an aggressive pursuit of power.

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    Neorealism Addresses The Limitations of Classical Realism

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    Saed Kakei
    1K views3 pages
    Neorealism addresses limitations of classical realism by focusing less on human nature and more on how the anarchic structure of the international system shapes state behavior. Classical realism views states as rational actors pursuing power in an anarchic system. Neorealism, as developed by Kenneth Waltz, emphasizes that states are influenced more by their external environment than internal decision-making. Neorealism argues bipolar systems are more stable than multipolar ones due to decreased competition between great powers. However, critics argue this can also increase security dilemmas and an aggressive pursuit of power.

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    Neorealism Addresses the Limitations of Classical Realism

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    Neorealism addresses limitations of classical realism by focusing less on human nature and more on how the anarchic structure of the international system shapes state behavior. Classical realism views states as rational actors pursuing power in an anarchic system. Neorealism, as developed by Kenneth Waltz, emphasizes that states are influenced more by their external environment than internal decision-making. Neorealism argues bipolar systems are more stable than multipolar ones due to decreased competition between great powers. However, critics argue this can also increase security dilemmas and an aggressive pursuit of power.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    1K views3 pages

    Neorealism Addresses The Limitations of Classical Realism

    Uploaded by

    Saed Kakei
    Neorealism addresses limitations of classical realism by focusing less on human nature and more on how the anarchic structure of the international system shapes state behavior. Classical realism views states as rational actors pursuing power in an anarchic system. Neorealism, as developed by Kenneth Waltz, emphasizes that states are influenced more by their external environment than internal decision-making. Neorealism argues bipolar systems are more stable than multipolar ones due to decreased competition between great powers. However, critics argue this can also increase security dilemmas and an aggressive pursuit of power.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Kakei 1

    Neorealism addresses the limitations of classical realism

    By: Saeed Kakeyi


    April 08, 2007

    Realism, also known as Classical Realism, became known as a discipline in International


    Relations (IR) during and after the World War II as a response to the arguable Liberalist
    IR theory, adhered by Woodrow Wilson and others, who claimed that states cooperate
    among each other. Classical Realism, which began as an active field of research for the
    United States’ academics and statesmen, has undergone changes due to its negative view
    of human nature. These changes, thereafter, became encompassed in a new and modern
    form of realism, known to us as “Neorealism” or “Structural Realism”. Hence, one might
    ask why classical realism has a negative view of human nature, and to what extent
    neorealism has addressed the limitations of classical realism.
    This assay will address these questions by providing a brief but through
    summaries of the two theories drawing upon claims and arguments made by their
    respective theorists, highlighting and explaining their key theoretical difference and
    illustrating that with examples from contemporary IR and my own personal inputs and
    views with respect to their viabilities and limitations. But, first, I will address the reasons
    which led to the evolution of classical realism.

    Liberalism and the Evolution of Classical Realism


    It was during the WW I, when scholars and statesmen made consensus based on various
    theories of historical, philosophical, economics, strategy and international law to form a
    discipline whereby governs the IR with which they can avoid major wars. The need for
    peaceful changes of IR issues, then, became known as the “Idealism” which refers to the
    school of thought personified in American diplomacy by Woodrow Wilson.
    Idealism holds that a state should make its internal political philosophy to be the
    goal of its foreign policy by emphasizing the rule of international law through the
    creation of the League of Nations.
    Shortly after the failure of the League of Nations in managing the balance of
    power in Europe, and due to the outbreak of WW II, Idealism was replaced by the
    liberalists with a modified version of “Wilsonianism” known as liberalism or “Classical
    Liberalism”.
    During and after the WW II, and due to its profound impacts on mankind, many
    western democratic students and statesmen in all braches of politics, and specifically in
    the study of IR, engaged in rigorous researches to find an alternative for the optimistic
    liberal behaviors and to refute the liberalists’ claim that states seek cooperation.
    In such, some have turned to Thucydides’ “The Peloponnesian Wars” in which he
    argued some twenty four hundred years ago that “International politics is driven by an
    endless struggle of power which has its roots in human nature” (Baylis and Smith 166).
    Others reached out to Machiavelli’s “The Prince” to benefit from his political realism
    which “recognizes that principles subordinated to policies…to accept and adapt to the
    changing power-political configurations in world politics” (166).
    But, it was E. H. Carr who, studying Thucydides’ history and Machiavelli’s
    strategy combined with his inconsistent philosophical denotes with the liberalist theories,
    Kakei 2

    laid the ground for the rise of the mid 20th century realism. In his book “The Twenty
    Years’ Crisis, Carr explains how positive rational and peaceful cooperation among states
    contribute to anarchy and create insecurity in the world (1939).
    Picking-up from that, Hans Morgenthau, a German scholar who migrated to the
    United States because of the WW II, argued that, “International politics, like all politics,
    is a struggle for power” (Kaufman et al. 61). Yet, in order to explain power, he furthers
    that “Political power is a psychological relation between those who exercise it and those
    over which it is exercised. It gives the former control over certain actions of the latter
    through the influence which the former exert over the latter's minds. That influence may
    be exerted through orders, threats, persuasion, or a combination of any of those” (62). In
    other words, Morgenthau argued that since politics is governed by laws created by human
    nature, therefore, it is interests which driving by power make us plays our roles in
    international politics (Baylis 166).
    Thus, classical realism, can be characterized as an aggressive approach to achieve
    belongings, and with that been said, its adherents share the following key assumptions:

    1. The international system is anarchic. There is no authority above states capable of


    regulating their interactions.
    2. Sovereign states are the principal actors in the international system. International
    institutions, non-governmental organizations, multinational corporations are
    viewed as having little independent influence.
    3. States are rational unitary actors each moving towards their own national interest.
    There is a general distrust of long-term cooperation or alliance.
    4. In pursuit of national security, states strive to amass resources.
    5. Relations between states are determined by their comparative level of power
    derived primarily from their military and economic capabilities (Wikipedia).

    Structural Realism:
    Structural Realism or Neorealism derives from classical realism except that
    instead of human nature, its focus is mainly on the international politics with greater
    emphasis put on the struggle for power. According to Baylis and Smith, the key idea in J.
    J. Rousseau’s book of “The State of War,” stipulates that “it is not human nature, but the
    anarchical system which fosters fear, jealousy, suspicion, and insecurity (166).
    Kenneth N. Waltz, redefining Morgenthau’s Balance of Power theory, takes the
    key thoughts of the classical realism into his “Theory of International Politics” (Kaufman
    et al. 289). He clearly states that anarchy is the nature of the international system that
    leads to the common sense of “self-serving states” in pursue of their vital security (293-
    294). In contrast to classical realism, Waltz argues that while states remain the main
    actors in the international system, greater reflection must be given to the outer-core
    elements of the states through a level of analysis or structure-agency debate (295-296).
    He sees international system as a structure whereby the state with individuals below the
    level of the state act as unitary agency for the state (297). Furthermore, unlike classical
    realists, Waltz advocates bipolarity by saying that “the great powers of a bipolar world
    are more self-sufficient, and interdependence loosens between them” (327).
    It is worth mentioning that structural realism, just like classical realism, has its
    own variations when it comes to defining power struggle within the international system.
    Kakei 3

    For example; John Mearsheimer’s theory of offensive realism discloses that states in the
    anarchical system are inherently aggressive and that there is no status quo or satisfied
    states with the amount of power in their possessions. Critics of Mearsheimer’s
    aggressive build-up of power, however, argue that aggressive status will create a security
    dilemma since the maximization of power by any one state will perpetuate greater power
    competition (Baylis and Smith 176).
    In summary, although there are variations in the formations of both, classical
    realism and structural realism, the later was able to reframe realism into a coherent theory
    with emphasis been put on international anarchy and the balance of power in the
    international system.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Reference:
    Baylis, John, and Steve Smith. The Globalization of World Pollitics. 3rd. New York:
    Oxford University Press, 2005.

    Kaufman, Daniel, Jay Parker, Patrick Howell, and Grant Doty.Understanding


    International Relations: The Value of Alternative Lenses. 5th. Boston: Sustom
    Publishing - McGraw-Hill, 2004.

    Carr, E. H.. "THE HARMONY OF INTERESTS." The Twenty Years Crisis. 1939.
    http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/carr.htm. 6 Apr 2007
    <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/carr.htm>.

    "Realism (international relations)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 9 April2007.


    Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 6 Apr 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_
    %28international_relations%29#Common_assumptions>.

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