The Experts below are selected from a list of 18873 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Ido Oren - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The Unrealism of Contemporary Realism: The Tension between Realist Theory and Realists' Practice
Perspectives on Politics, 2009Co-Authors: Ido OrenAbstract:Realist International Relations thinkers often intervene in political debates and criticize their governments' policies even as they pride themselves on theorizing politics as it “really” is. They rarely reflect on the following contradictions between their Theory and their practice: if there is a “real world” impervious to political thought, why bother to try to influence it? And, is Realist Theory not putatively disconfirmed by the fact that Realist thinkers have so often opposed existing foreign policies (e.g., the wars in Vietnam and Iraq)? I argue that these contradictions are not inherent in realism per se so much as in the commitment of contemporary Realists to naturalistic methodological and epistemological postulates. I show that Hans Morgenthau and especially E. H. Carr, far from being naïve “traditionalists,” have grappled with these questions in a sophisticated manner; they have adopted non-naturalistic methodological and epistemological stances that minimize the tension between Realist Theory and the realities of Realists' public activism. I conclude with a call for contemporary Realists to adjust their Theory to their practice by trading the dualism underlying their approach—subject-object; science-politics; purpose-analysis—for E. H. Carr's dictum that “political thought is itself a form of political action.”
Brian Rathbun - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The Rarity of Realpolitik: What Bismarck's Rationality Reveals about International Politics
International Security, 2018Co-Authors: Brian RathbunAbstract:Realpolitik, the pursuit of vital state interests in a dangerous world that constrains state behavior, is at the heart of Realist Theory. All Realists assume either that states engage in such behav...
Ariel Ilan Roth - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Nuclear Weapons in Neo-Realist Theory'
International Studies Review, 2007Co-Authors: Ariel Ilan RothAbstract:This essay identifies a difference of opinion over the role of nuclear weapons as an absolute deterrent as the basis for the theoretical disagreement between Kenneth Waltz and John Mearsheimer regarding whether security is attained through the maintenance of the status quo or through the aggressive elimination of potential rivals. The essay traces the writings of both scholars over a period of decades to demonstrate how Waltz has come to regard nuclear weapons as making conquest so unprofitable that possessing them provides absolute security. It also shows how Mearsheimer holds a more ambiguous position on the deterrent strength of nuclear weapons, which helps to explain why he believes that states still seek security through offensive action. The essay offers a guide to show how these important theories influence and shape current policy debates over the proliferation of nuclear weapons to both state and nonstate actors.
Brook M. Blair - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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On the idealist origins of the Realist Theory of international relations
Review of International Studies, 1993Co-Authors: Ronen P. Palan, Brook M. BlairAbstract:A Theory, writes Anthony Wilden, like any other adaptive system, must have a survival value. It is impossible, he continues, ‘for a Theory not to have a referent or a goal outside itself, since “pure truth” not only does not exist, it has no survival value whatsoever.’ Wilden's reference to the ‘external’ goal of a Theory suggests that theories carry subliminal messages which exceed the strict boundary of their textual content. An effective technique for identifying the political and normative undertones communicated by theories is an inquiry into those areas which supposedly of peripheral significance to them.
Daniel H. Nexon - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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What Moves Man: The Realist Theory of International Relations and Its Judgment of Human Nature
Perspectives on Politics, 2004Co-Authors: Daniel H. NexonAbstract:What Moves Man: The Realist Theory of International Relations and Its Judgment of Human Nature. By Annette Freyberg-Inan. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. 266p. $59.50 cloth, $19.95 paper. Human nature is the subject of Annette Freyberg-Inan's sustained attack on political realism. She argues that all Realist Theory shares a common set of assumptions about human motivations. In short, Realists believe that humans are, and always will be, up to little good. We are fearful, self-interested, power-hungry, and “by and large, rational” (p. 94). Realists apply these psychological characteristics to nation-states, modifying them only to the extent that states and their leaders are likely to be more rational—in the sense of being strategic and utility maximizing—than average people. Such understandings of human nature are, however, simplistic and misleading.
