REALISM WILLIAM C. WOHLFORTH.

The importance of realism is given by the fact that the study of politics is
inexplicable without a grounding in realism. Realism has been argued by Wohlforth
to incorporate more theories. Thus, the word theory refers to three different things.
Namely, specific realist theories including the balance of power, the security
dilemma and the offense-defense balance; its subschools such as neoliberalism and
realism as a complex tradition of statecraft and scholarship. With this in mind, it
could be said that by trying to reduce the notion of realism to a single theory
misunderstanding will occur.
WHAT IS REALISM ?
The study of international relations has been done by four main generations:
interwar and wartime generation, postwar or early cold war generatiom, dtente
generation and finally, post cold-war generation. Realism can bee seen as a
spectrum of ideas, a big tent with room for a number of different theories.
Most of the times the definitions of realism converge around four central points, as
follows: grupism, egoism, anarchy and power politics. The last one can be
exemplified as the relations between grupism and egoism in an environment of
anarchy. As Waltz noted, The web of social and political life is spun out of
inclinations and incentives, deterrent threats and punishments. Must be noted that
anarchy makes power politics characteristic principally of international relations.
REALISM TODAY.
Three key trends are evident. First is a reduced salience of interparadigmic
competition. The focus is increasingly on what realist theories might add to
knowledge about more specific problems or issues. For instance, recent realist
research represents attempts to answer general empirical puzzles or to explain
particular behavioural patters. This has facilitated a second trend: more
productive interactions with other theoretical schools. Regarding this it
could be said that Realism is the fulcrum of other theories. The last trend is the
cumulation of new and important research by scholars working within the
realist tradition. Work that seeks to account for general phenomena such as the
origins of war or particular such as the origins of George W. Bush
administrations approach to foreign policy and the invasion of Iraq.