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Realism and Neorealism

Realism and neorealism have dominated the post-1945 academic study of international relations (IR). Realists claim to offer both the most accurate explanation of state behavior and a set of policy prescriptions (notably the balance of power between states) for ameliorating the inherent destabilizing elements of international affairs. Realism, at a general level, stresses the centrality of the state, national interest, and military power in world politics. It focuses on the continuity of patterns of interaction in an international system lacking a centralized political authority. This condition of anarchy means that international politics often follow a different logic from domestic politics, which is regulated by a sovereign power. Realists are pessimistic about the possibility of radical systemic reform. Realism is a broad tradition of thought, composed of a variety of different strands. The most significant break is between classical realism and neorealism.

Classical Realism

Realists frequently claim to draw on an ancient tradition of political thought. Their canon includes Thucydides, Thomas Hobbes, Niccolo Machiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Max Weber. Realism as a self-defined tradition of reflection on international politics emerged during the mid-twentieth century, inspired by the British historian E. H. Carr. Carr attacked what he perceived as the dangerous and deluded “idealism” of liberal internationalists and, in particular, their belief in the possibility of progress through the construction of international institutions (especially the League of Nations). He focused instead on the perennial role of power and self-interest in determining state behavior. World War II converted many people to this pessimistic vision. Thereafter, realism became established in American political science departments, its fortunes boosted by a number of émigré European scholars, most notably Hans Morgenthau. It is the realism of Carr, Morgenthau, Reinhold Niebuhr, and their followers that is labeled classical.

Classical realism was not a coherent school of thought: It drew from a wide variety of sources and offered competing visions of the self, the state, and the world. Carr was influenced by Marxism, Niebuhr by Augustinian theology, while Morgenthau drew on Friedrich Nietzsche, Weber, Carl Schmitt, and American civic republicanism. They were united mainly by that which they opposed. Classical realism is a philosophy of limits. Critical of the ambition, optimism, and explanatory focus of liberal internationalists, realists have instead tended to stress the barriers—whether inscribed in human nature, political institutions, or the structure of the international system—to progress and reform. The fortunes of classical realism, grounded as it was in a combination of history, philosophy, and theology waned under the 1960s onslaught of social scientific behaviorism. Its fortunes were revived by the emergence of neorealism during the 1970s.

Neorealism

Associated in particular with Kenneth Waltz, neorealism is an attempt to translate some of the key insights of classical realism into the language and methods of modern social science. In the Theory of International Politics (1979), Waltz argued that most of the important features of IR, and especially the actions of great powers, could be explained solely in terms of the anarchical structure of the international system. This was not a new argument, but in systematizing it and attempting to establish it on scientifically defensible grounds, Waltz simultaneously reinvigorated realism and further detached it from its original roots.

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