Realism

Realism is a very influential school or paradigm for the study of international politics. Even though realism contains various strands of thought, realists share a few basic assumptions.

1) The international system is anarchical, in the sense that there is no world government or any other higher authority to maintain order and peace.
2) States are the most important actors.
3) From anarchy flows an obsession of states with national survival and national security. Since they cannot rely on a higher authority, they have to help themselves to ensure their security. They can do so in the form of armaments and/or military alliances. Either way, national security is a matter of building up material sources of power.
4) Anarchy and states’ relentless quest for security amount to an international states system that, as long it exists, is characterized by perpetual distrust, competition and conflict.

Realism is influential, but at the same time strongly contested. For several other schools (such as neoliberal institutionalism, constructivism, feminism) in international relations, critique of realism has been very important for their own development.

The major strands within realism are

- Classical realism (Kirshner, 2022)
- Structural or neorealism (Waltz, 1979)
- Neoclassical realism (Ripsman, Taliaferro, & Lobell, 2016)

Critics, such as liberals, have asserted that states are not the only actors that shape international politics, as the latter is also populated by public opinion, non-state actors such as non-governmental organizations and multinational companies, as well as international organizations. Ontologically, the liberal democratic peace theory pretends that the spread of liberal democracy at national level can neutralize the conflictive tendencies of anarchy. neoliberal institutionalists have argued that complex interdependence and globalization engendered many common interests across states, which offer hope for less competition and more cooperation.

Marxists criticize realism for overlooking the underlying transnational capitalist system, which (also) harbors sources of conflict.

From a constructivist perspective, one could theorize that realism is taking the conflictual anarchical world for granted. The idea that, under anarchy, states cannot trust each other with all due consequences remains a mental and social construct. The more states stop considering too many other states as potential threats, the more stability and peace can be expected. In addition, realist prioritization of the security of states often involves ignoring the security and suffering of human beings. In the same vein, some feminist scholars associate realism with a masculine and problematic world view and value set, and with ultranationalism and militarism.