INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS → Waltz argued that this condition would lead weaker
states to balance against, rather than bandwagon
→ The discipline concerned with the factors and the with, more powerful rivals.
activities which affect the external policies and
power of the basic units into which the world is → Contrary to Morgenthau, he claimed that bipolarity
divided (Hoffman, 1977). was more stable than multipolarity.
→ “Study of all forms of interactions that exist Refinement to realism: offense-defense theory, (Robert
between members of separate entities or nations Jervis, George Quester, and Stephen Van Evera).
within the international system" (Ola, 1999).
War was more likely when states could conquer each
→ ‘A fusion of social science disciplines’, as it deals other easily.
with the basic elements of the social man; the only
difference is that it looks at such essentials in When defense was easier than offense, however,
relational contexts beyond national borders security was more plentiful, incentives to expand
(Folarin, n.d). declined, and cooperation could blossom.
REALISM And if defense had the advantage, and states could
distinguish between offensive and defensive weapons,
Realism was the dominant theoretical tradition then states could acquire the means to defend
throughout the Cold War. themselves without threatening others, thereby
dampening the effects of anarchy.
It depicts international affairs as a struggle for power
among self-interested states and is generally For these "defensive" realists, states merely sought to
pessimistic about the prospects for eliminating conflict survive and great powers could guarantee their
and war. security by forming balancing alliances and choosing
defensive military postures (such as retaliatory nuclear
Realism dominated in the Cold War years because it forces).
provided simple but powerful explanations for war,
alliances, imperialism, obstacles to cooperation, and Not surprisingly, Waltz and most other neo-realists
other international phenomena, and because its believed that the United States was extremely secure
emphasis on competition was consistent with the for most of the Cold War.
central features of the American-Soviet rivalry.
Their principle fear was that it might squander its
Realism is not a single theory, of course, and realist favorable position by adopting an overly aggressive
thought evolved considerably throughout the Cold War. foreign policy.
→ "Classical" realists such as Hans Morgenthau and By the end of the Cold War, realism had moved away
Reinhold Niebuhr believed that states, like human from Morgenthau's dark brooding about human nature
beings, had an innate desire to dominate others, and taken on a slightly more optimistic tone.
which led them to fight wars.
LIBERALISM
→ Morgenthau also stressed the virtues of the
classical, multipolar, balance-of-power system and Principal challenge to realism came from a broad family
saw the bipolar rivalry between the United States of liberal theories.
and the Soviet Union as especially dangerous.
1. Economic interdependence would discourage
→ The "neorealist" theory advanced by Kenneth states from using force against each other because
Waltz ignored human nature and focused on the warfare would threaten each side's prosperity.
effects of the international system.
2. The spread of democracy as the key to world
→ For Waltz, the international system consisted of a peace, based on the claim that democratic states
number of great powers, each seeking to survive. were inherently more peaceful than authoritarian
states.
→ Because the system is anarchic (i.e., there is no
central authority to protect states from one 3. International institutions such as the International
another), each state has to survive on its own. Energy Agency and the International Monetary
Fund could help overcome selfish state behavior,
mainly by encouraging states to forego immediate
, gains for the greater benefits of enduring 1. first, active participation in the world economy
cooperation. was a better route to prosperity than
autonomous socialist development;
Some liberals: new transnational actors, esp. the 2. second, many developing countries proved
multinational corporations, were gradually encroaching themselves quite capable of bargaining
on the power of states, liberalism generally saw states successfully with multinational corporations
as the central players in international affairs. and other capitalist institutions.
All liberal theories implied that cooperation was more As marxism succumbed to its various failings, its
pervasive than even the defensive version of realism mantle was assumed by a group of theorists who
allowed, but each view offered a different recipe for borrowed heavily from the wave of postmodern writings
promoting it. in literary criticism and social theory. This
"deconstructionist" approach was openly skeptical of
MARXISM the effort to devise general or universal theories such
as realism or liberalism. Indeed, its proponents
Until the 1980s, Marxism was the main alternative to emphasized the importance of language and discourse
the mainstream realist and liberal traditions. in shaping social outcomes.
Where realism and liberalism took the state system for However, because these scholars focused initially on
granted, Marxism offered both a different explanation criticizing the mainstream paradigms but did not offer
for international conflict and a blueprint for positive alternatives to them, they remained a self-
fundamentally transforming the existing international consciously dissident minority for most of the 1980s.
order.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Orthodox marxist theory saw capitalism as the central
cause of international conflict. Not all Cold War scholarship on international affairs fit
neatly into the realist, liberal, or marxist paradigms.
Capitalist states battled each other as a consequence
of their incessant struggle for profits and battled In particular, a number of important works focused on
socialist states because they saw in them the seeds of the characteristics of states, governmental
their own destruction. organizations, or individual leaders.
Neomarxist "dependency“ theory, by contrast, focused The democratic strand of liberal theory fits under this
on relations between advanced capitalist powers and heading, as do the efforts of scholars such as Graham
less developed states and argued that the former- Allison and John Steinbruner to use organization
aided by an unholy alliance with the ruling classes of theory and bureaucratic politics to explain foreign
the developing world-had grown rich by exploiting the policy behavior, and those of Jervis, Irving Janis, and
latter. others, which applied social and cognitive psychology.
The solution was to overthrow these parasitic elites and For the most part, these efforts did not seek to provide
install a revolutionary government committed to a general theory of international behavior but to identify
autonomous development. other factors that might lead states to behave contrary
to the predictions of the realist or liberal approaches.
Both of these theories were largely discredited before
the Cold War even ended. Much of this literature should be regarded as a
complement to the three main paradigms rather than
The extensive history of economic and military as a rival approach for analysis of the international
cooperation among the advanced industrial powers system as a whole.
showed that capitalism did not inevitably lead to
conflict. CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORIES
The bitter schisms that divided the communist world Whereas realism and liberalism tend to focus on
showed that socialism did not always promote material factors such as power or trade, constructivist
harmony. approaches emphasize the impact of ideas.
Dependency theory suffered similar empirical setbacks Instead of taking the state for granted and assuming
as it became increasingly clear that, that it simply seeks to survive, constructivists regard
the interests and identities of states as a highly
malleable product of specific historical processes.
states to balance against, rather than bandwagon
→ The discipline concerned with the factors and the with, more powerful rivals.
activities which affect the external policies and
power of the basic units into which the world is → Contrary to Morgenthau, he claimed that bipolarity
divided (Hoffman, 1977). was more stable than multipolarity.
→ “Study of all forms of interactions that exist Refinement to realism: offense-defense theory, (Robert
between members of separate entities or nations Jervis, George Quester, and Stephen Van Evera).
within the international system" (Ola, 1999).
War was more likely when states could conquer each
→ ‘A fusion of social science disciplines’, as it deals other easily.
with the basic elements of the social man; the only
difference is that it looks at such essentials in When defense was easier than offense, however,
relational contexts beyond national borders security was more plentiful, incentives to expand
(Folarin, n.d). declined, and cooperation could blossom.
REALISM And if defense had the advantage, and states could
distinguish between offensive and defensive weapons,
Realism was the dominant theoretical tradition then states could acquire the means to defend
throughout the Cold War. themselves without threatening others, thereby
dampening the effects of anarchy.
It depicts international affairs as a struggle for power
among self-interested states and is generally For these "defensive" realists, states merely sought to
pessimistic about the prospects for eliminating conflict survive and great powers could guarantee their
and war. security by forming balancing alliances and choosing
defensive military postures (such as retaliatory nuclear
Realism dominated in the Cold War years because it forces).
provided simple but powerful explanations for war,
alliances, imperialism, obstacles to cooperation, and Not surprisingly, Waltz and most other neo-realists
other international phenomena, and because its believed that the United States was extremely secure
emphasis on competition was consistent with the for most of the Cold War.
central features of the American-Soviet rivalry.
Their principle fear was that it might squander its
Realism is not a single theory, of course, and realist favorable position by adopting an overly aggressive
thought evolved considerably throughout the Cold War. foreign policy.
→ "Classical" realists such as Hans Morgenthau and By the end of the Cold War, realism had moved away
Reinhold Niebuhr believed that states, like human from Morgenthau's dark brooding about human nature
beings, had an innate desire to dominate others, and taken on a slightly more optimistic tone.
which led them to fight wars.
LIBERALISM
→ Morgenthau also stressed the virtues of the
classical, multipolar, balance-of-power system and Principal challenge to realism came from a broad family
saw the bipolar rivalry between the United States of liberal theories.
and the Soviet Union as especially dangerous.
1. Economic interdependence would discourage
→ The "neorealist" theory advanced by Kenneth states from using force against each other because
Waltz ignored human nature and focused on the warfare would threaten each side's prosperity.
effects of the international system.
2. The spread of democracy as the key to world
→ For Waltz, the international system consisted of a peace, based on the claim that democratic states
number of great powers, each seeking to survive. were inherently more peaceful than authoritarian
states.
→ Because the system is anarchic (i.e., there is no
central authority to protect states from one 3. International institutions such as the International
another), each state has to survive on its own. Energy Agency and the International Monetary
Fund could help overcome selfish state behavior,
mainly by encouraging states to forego immediate
, gains for the greater benefits of enduring 1. first, active participation in the world economy
cooperation. was a better route to prosperity than
autonomous socialist development;
Some liberals: new transnational actors, esp. the 2. second, many developing countries proved
multinational corporations, were gradually encroaching themselves quite capable of bargaining
on the power of states, liberalism generally saw states successfully with multinational corporations
as the central players in international affairs. and other capitalist institutions.
All liberal theories implied that cooperation was more As marxism succumbed to its various failings, its
pervasive than even the defensive version of realism mantle was assumed by a group of theorists who
allowed, but each view offered a different recipe for borrowed heavily from the wave of postmodern writings
promoting it. in literary criticism and social theory. This
"deconstructionist" approach was openly skeptical of
MARXISM the effort to devise general or universal theories such
as realism or liberalism. Indeed, its proponents
Until the 1980s, Marxism was the main alternative to emphasized the importance of language and discourse
the mainstream realist and liberal traditions. in shaping social outcomes.
Where realism and liberalism took the state system for However, because these scholars focused initially on
granted, Marxism offered both a different explanation criticizing the mainstream paradigms but did not offer
for international conflict and a blueprint for positive alternatives to them, they remained a self-
fundamentally transforming the existing international consciously dissident minority for most of the 1980s.
order.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Orthodox marxist theory saw capitalism as the central
cause of international conflict. Not all Cold War scholarship on international affairs fit
neatly into the realist, liberal, or marxist paradigms.
Capitalist states battled each other as a consequence
of their incessant struggle for profits and battled In particular, a number of important works focused on
socialist states because they saw in them the seeds of the characteristics of states, governmental
their own destruction. organizations, or individual leaders.
Neomarxist "dependency“ theory, by contrast, focused The democratic strand of liberal theory fits under this
on relations between advanced capitalist powers and heading, as do the efforts of scholars such as Graham
less developed states and argued that the former- Allison and John Steinbruner to use organization
aided by an unholy alliance with the ruling classes of theory and bureaucratic politics to explain foreign
the developing world-had grown rich by exploiting the policy behavior, and those of Jervis, Irving Janis, and
latter. others, which applied social and cognitive psychology.
The solution was to overthrow these parasitic elites and For the most part, these efforts did not seek to provide
install a revolutionary government committed to a general theory of international behavior but to identify
autonomous development. other factors that might lead states to behave contrary
to the predictions of the realist or liberal approaches.
Both of these theories were largely discredited before
the Cold War even ended. Much of this literature should be regarded as a
complement to the three main paradigms rather than
The extensive history of economic and military as a rival approach for analysis of the international
cooperation among the advanced industrial powers system as a whole.
showed that capitalism did not inevitably lead to
conflict. CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORIES
The bitter schisms that divided the communist world Whereas realism and liberalism tend to focus on
showed that socialism did not always promote material factors such as power or trade, constructivist
harmony. approaches emphasize the impact of ideas.
Dependency theory suffered similar empirical setbacks Instead of taking the state for granted and assuming
as it became increasingly clear that, that it simply seeks to survive, constructivists regard
the interests and identities of states as a highly
malleable product of specific historical processes.
