1. Theme “Major International Relations Theories”
Lecture 1.
Political Realism and
Liberalism
The Story of Confrontation and Inter-
action
January 15th, 2015
Anna A. Dekalchuk,
Lecturer at the Department of Applied Politics,
Higher School of Economics – St. Petersburg

2. Lecture's outline
1. Realism: who is who?
2. Realism: what is it about?
3. Realism: one or many?
4. Liberalism: what is it?
5. Liberalism: who is who?
6. Liberalism: contradictions

3. 1. Realism: who are these people?
Hans J. Morgenthau
(1904-1980)
“Politics Among Nations:
The Struggle for Power
and Peace” (1948)
E.H. Carr (1882-1982)
“The Twenty Years Crisis,
1919–1939: an Introduction
to the Study of International
Relations” (1939)
Reinhold Niebuhr
(1892-1971)
“Moral Man and Immoral
Society: A Study of Ethics
and Politics” (1932)

4. 1. Realism: 6 principles
o
Political realism believes that politics, like society in general, is governed
by objective laws that have their roots in human nature.
o
The main signpost of political realism is the concept of interest defined
in terms of power, which infuses rational order into the subject matter
of politics, and thus makes the theoretical understanding of politics
possible. Political realism avoids concerns with the motives and ideology
of statesmen. Political realism avoids reinterpreting reality to fit the
policy. A good foreign policy minimizes risks and maximizes benefits.
o
Realism recognizes that the determining kind of interest varies
depending on the political and cultural context in which foreign policy,
not to be confused with a theory of international politics, is made. It
does not give "interest defined as power" a meaning that is fixed once
and for all.

5. 1. Realism: 6 principles
o
Political realism is aware of the moral significance of political action. It
is also aware of the tension between the moral command and the
requirements of successful political action. Realism maintains that
universal moral principles must be filtered through the concrete
circumstances of time and place, because they cannot be applied to
the actions of states in their abstract universal formulation.
o
Political realism refuses to identify the moral aspirations of a particular
nation with the moral laws that govern the universe.
o
The political realist maintains the autonomy of the political sphere;
the statesman asks "How does this policy affect the power and
interests of the nation?" Political realism is based on a pluralistic
conception of human nature. The political realist must show where the
nation's interests differ from the moralistic and legalistic viewpoints.

6. 1. Realism: who are these weirdos?
Thucydides
(c. 460-406 B.C.)
“The Peloponnesian
War”
Niccolo
Machiavelli
(1469-1527)
“The Prince”
Thomas
Hobbes
(1588-1679)
“Leviathan”
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
(1712-1778)
“The State of
War”
What is raison d’état?

7. 1. Realism: what is raison d’état?
o
“It tells the statesman what he must do to preserve the health and strength of the
State.”
o
“The state, which is identified as the key actor in international politics, must pursue
power, and it is the duty of the statesperson to calculate rationally the most
appropriate steps that should be taken so as to perpetuate the life of the state in a
hostile and threatening environment.”
o
Morals and ethics and dual moral standards (“It is kind to be cruel”).

8. 2. Realism: what is it about?
1. Statism
2. Survival
3. Self-help

9. 2. Realism: what is it about?
Statism, or state-centric assumption
o
Group as the unit of analysis, beginning with polis and then…
o
1648 – Osnabrück and Münster peace treaties (Peace of
Westphalia), the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648),
Westphalian sovereignty (till 1814 and the Congress of Vienna).
o
“Cujus regio, ejus religio” = “Whose realm, his religion”.
o
Sovereignty inside and anarchy outside.
o
State is the legitimate representative of the collective will of the
people + “the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force
within a given territory”.
o
States as billiard balls of different size = power differentials of
states.

10. 2. Realism: what is it about?
Survival
o
Condition of anarchy – key characteristic of international politics (no
overarching central authority above the individual collection of
sovereign states; no hierarchy, just a set of sovereign states).
o
Under anarchy, the survival of the state cannot be guaranteed,
therefore first priority for state leaders is to ensure the survival of
their state in a hostile environment.
o
States as billiard balls of different size = power differentials of states.
o
Power is crucial to the realist lexicon and has traditionally been
defined narrowly in military strategic terms and, therefore, in terms
of national interests.
o
Core national interest of any state is survival.
What do realists mean when talking about power?

11. 2. Realism: what is it about?
Self-help
o
In order to survive states should not depend on other states to ensure
their own security (no international institutions).
o
If a state feels threatened, it should seek to augment its own power
capabilities by engaging, e.g., in a military arms build-up, or…
o
through the balance of power (Cold War, NATO and Warsaw Pact).
o
Emphasis on relative gains / comparative advantage (vs. absolute
gains) => zero-sum game and stag hunt game.
o
Security dilemma.
(+)
(+)
(-) What’s that? о_О

12. 3. Realism: one or many?
Where do classical realism and structural realism differ?

13. 3. Realism: one or many?
Kenneth Waltz (1924-2013),
Defensive structural realism
John Mearsheimer (1947),
Offensive structural realism
The relative distribution of power in the international system is the
key independent variable in understanding important international
outcomes such as war and peace, alliance politics, and the balance
of power.

14. 3. Realism: one or many?
Kenneth Waltz (1924-2013),
Defensive structural realism
o
Power is a means to the end of
security.
o
Rather than being power
maximizers, states are security
maximizers.
o
Power maximization often proves
to be dysfunctional because it
triggers a counter-balancing
coalition.

15. 3. Realism: one or many?
John Mearsheimer (b. 1947),
Offensive structural realism
o
The structure of the international
system compels states to
maximize their relative power as
there is always a great deal of
uncertainty about the intentions
of other states.
o
There are no satisfied or status
quo states; rather all states are
continuously searching for
opportunities to gain power at the
expense of other states.
o
The ideal position is to be the
global hegemon of the
international system.

16. 3. Realism: one or many?
Meet John
Mearsheimer
(11:55-15:55)
Realism is …

17. 3. Realism: one or many?

18. 4. Liberalism: what is it?
Inter-war Idealism
New World Order and the End of
History – end of the Cold War
Four-fold definition of liberalism by Doyle (1997)
4.
3.
2.
1. All citizens are juridically equal and possess certain basic rights.
The legislative assembly of the state possesses only the authority
invested in it by the people, whose basic rights it is not permitted to
abuse.
A key dimension of the liberty of the individual is the rights to own
property including productive forces.
Liberalism contends that the most effective system of economic
exchange is one that is largely market driven.
What is the contradiction here?

19. 4. Liberalism: what is it?
4.
3.
2.
1. All citizens are juridically equal and possess certain basic rights.
The legislative assembly of the state possesses only the authority
invested in it by the people, whose basic rights it is not permitted to
abuse.
A key dimension of the liberty of the individual is the rights to own
property including productive forces.
Liberalism contends that the most effective system of economic
exchange is one that is largely market driven.
How do we apply those premises to IR?
The historical project of liberalism is the
domestication of the international (analogy)
Four-fold definition of liberalism by Doyle (1997)

20. 5. Liberalism: who are these weirdos?
Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804)
“Perpetual Peace: A
Philosophical Sketch”
(1795)
Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832)
Richard Cobden
(1804-1865)

21. 5. Liberalism: who are these weirdos?
Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804)
“Perpetual Peace: A
Philosophical Sketch”
(1795)
o
First Definitive Article: The Civil
Constitution of Every State shall be
Republican.
o
Second Definitive Article: The Right of
Nations shall be based on a Federation
of Free States.
o
Third Definitive Article: Cosmopolitan
Right shall be limited to Condition of
Universal Hospitality.
o
The Kant’s federation can be likened to
a permanent peace treaty, rather than a
“superstate” actor or world government.

22. 5. Liberalism: who are these weirdos?
o
A legal and institutional framework
must be established that includes states
with different cultures and traditions.
o
“Establish a common tribunal” and “the
necessity for war no longer follows from
a difference of opinion”.
o
“between the interests of nations there
is nowhere any real conflict”.
Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832)

23. 5. Liberalism: who are these weirdos?
o
Free trade would create a more peaceful
world order (19th centuary liberal idea).
o
Trade brings mutual gains to all the
players, irrespective of their size or the
nature of their economies (natural
harmony of interests).
o
BUT:
o
There was never an admission that free
trade among countries at different
stages of development would lead to
relations of dominance and
subservience.
o
The Great War and the economic
interdependence between Germany and
the UK.
Richard Cobden
(1804-1865)

24. 5. Liberalism: who are these people?
Leonard Woolf
(1880-1969)
Woodrow Wilson
(1856-1924)

25. 5. Liberalism: who are these people?
o
WWI shifted liberal thinking towards a
recognition that peace is not a natural
condition but is one that must be
constructed.
o
Peace and prosperity require
“consciously devised machinery”.
o
Virginia Woolf’s husband.
Leonard Woolf
(1880-1969)

26. 5. Liberalism: who are these weirdos?
o
Peace could only be secured with the
creation of an international organization
to regulate international anarchy.
o
Just as peace had to be enforced in
domestic society, the international
domain had to have a system of
regulation for coping with disputes and
an international force that could be
mobilized if non-violent conflict
resolution failed (domestic analogy).
o
“Forteen Points” (1918) and the
creation of the League of Nations
(1919).
o
Idea of collective security – what’s that?
o
Idea of self-determination – what’s
that?
Woodrow Wilson
(1856-1924)

27. 5. Liberalism: who are these people?
Francis Fukuyama
(born 1952)
“The End of History and the
Last Man” (1992)
Michael Doyle
(born 1948)
“Liberalism and World
Politics” (1986)
Democratic peace thesis and the End of history thesis

28. 6. Liberalism: some contradictions
o
Liberalism of privilege
(embedded liberalism)
o
VS
o
Radical liberalism
(cosmopolitan model of
democracy +
“globalization from
below”, etc)