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Introduction to realism
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Realism origins and breakdown of its meaning, including the political thought of likes such as Machiavelli.
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LECTURE 2 NOTES -THE ESSENTIAL REALISMSchool Yard Analogy
Targ (1970) Childrens developing orientations to international politics. Journal of Peace
Research7(2)
According to Targ studied children between 9-12 did have an understanding into realist
theories at the time such as Morgenthau . Easy to understand?
Children (states) in the playground - some are bigger and stronger which enables them to
bully weaker children (bullied states).
Greek Tragedy
Lebow(2013)The Tragic Vision of Politics.CUP. Tragedy pervades all of IR, it is a term used to
describe the pessimism of realism. Tragedy was a popular narrative form amongst ancient
Greeks. Tragedy was an attempt of the Greeks to explain the world around them such as the
story of Icarus (really about people not knowing where the limits are and the consequences
of that). Downfall of states is that leaders don’t realize there limitations.
Herodotus(1996)The Histories.Penguin. King of Egypt, Amasis warns his powerful ally
Polycrates “…I have never yet heard of a man who after an unbroken run of luck was not
finally brought to complete ruin “. Bad things can happen, and you need to prepare for
these things or face your downfall.
IR is presented by realists as nothing but a replaying tragedy, but this cannot be as there has
been progression. Realism does not address this.
Actors/Actorship
For realists, Primary actors in IR/world politics is the state. All other actors are secondary.
Example - EU is made up with states but if EU states decide they do not want to be a part of
it anymore they keep that power while leaving.
Anarchy
The state is the primary actor and anarchy is an environment that states digress too.
Anarchy is not chaos; it is a situation with no overarching government or force that states
can fall upon if there is a problem beyond their control. States must provide their own
security as there is no over arching world government. Security priority. Not all states all
equal; different size military, economy, resources, environmental factors. Stronger states
can apply pressure to weaker states – like Targs school yard theory. How do small states
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