Might Makes Right essays

Might Makes Right essays The focus of realism is based on war and conflict. Its belief adheres to common human nature. Society in general is governed by laws that have their roots in human nature. The natural state of humans is warfare. Realists have a dark view on human nature, and are very pessimistic. This view lets them believe that it is necessary to become immoral when thinking about the national interest. There is little or no place for morality in foreign policy. They believe that this is just the way it is, and we have to deal with it. We may not like how the world is and our nature, but we must do what we can to protect ourselves. Realism has been the primary tradition in international politics ever since the Peloponnesian war. The main problem of international politics, the realist feels, is war and the use of force, and the main actors are states. This is a third-image view based not on individuals, but large-scale states. The realist despises interaction and feels that the end of international politics is the states intervention with other states. Realism was shown during the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, the father of realism, observed that the strategic interaction of states followed an apparent pattern. Within a given system of states, a certain hierarchy among the states determined the pattern of their relations. While a change in the hierarchy of weaker states did not ultimately affect a given system, a disturbance in the hierarchy of states would upset the equilibrium of the system. War was the result of a systematic change, brought by the increasing power of the Athenian state, which tried to exceed the power of the state of Sparta. This was one of the first examples of the security dilemma. In order to strengthen one countrys defenses, that country would put more emphasis on their defenses. In response to this, the other country as well would increase their defenses. The one country is not doing anything to initially pr...