WEEK 2: THE EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY

Slide 1: Idealism vs Realism

❖ The first so-called "great debate in International Relations was an ontological (what
is important) debate regarding the relations of states (took place during the
interwar period between 1930 to the early 1940s)
❖ 2 major events:
1) Following the devastations of WW1, emerged a group of academics (policy makers)
❖ "What can we do to prevent this"
❖ Fundamentally changed or structured

2) The creations of an international organization, called the League of Nations at the

start of WW2, however it failed
❖ Discredited realism

❖ Key Assumptions of Idealism:

➢ Human nature is essentially good
➢ Institutions, states, and law encourage/discourage selfish and aggressive
behaviour
➢ The international system can be reformed to prevent war

Slide 2: Idealism
❖ Explains human behaviour and the interaction between political governments in the
international sphere - rooted in liberalism
➢ Bring meaningful change
➢ Calling for institutional law in the international system (liberalism)
❖ US President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points and Four Principles
❖ “secret negotiations and peace treaties would be unacceptable and diplomacy ought
to be conducted openly…"
❖ The creation of an international body (League of Nations) to guarantee “political
independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”
❖ The failure of the League to act when it was most needed led to its collapse and the
dismissal of idealism as a serious theory in IR
❖ Views of history and progress

Slide 3: Realism
❖ Criticize the idealists for their utopian/normative view regarding the world (instead
of seeing the world as it actually is)
❖ Classical realism developed following WWII and the failure of idealism to account
for those events (and its ideas are rooted in ancient writing of Thucydides, Hobbes)
❖ Realism has three core elements:
➢ Statism: Statism refers to the idea that states are the key actors in
international politics
 ➢ Self-help: International politics is characterized by the condition of anarchy
(there is no central authority or ‘sovereign’ to regulate and enforce relations
between states)
➢ Survival: States are concerned about surviving in the anarchic system
❖ Condition of Anarchy: no hierarchy/world government which mediates between
states
❖ Zero Sum Game: you see another state acquiring power, then you interpret that as a
threat
❖ Normative and Empirical:
➢ Normative: what the world ought to be
➢ Empirical: we should try to understand and explain by looking at things as
they actually are

Slide 4: Behaviouralism vs Traditionalism

❖ Methodological debate in the 1960s concerning how international politics should be
studied (traditional approach v scientific approach)
❖ Behaviouralists argued that IR could move toward the objective of emulating the
natural sciences and embraced positivism
❖ Researchers hoped to have an impact on the real world (like economics)
❖ Traditional Approach: more interpretative data, focused on history and philosophy
❖ Scientific Approach: needed to adopt the scientific method to be considered
prestigious/ more rigorous methodology
❖ Both approaches uses the empirical approach:
➢ Traditionalists believe that states cannot be studied through scientific
method
■ They can collect data then study it after using the scientific method
❖ Most studies take a more positivist approach (scientific/statistical approach)

Slide 5: Neorealism
❖ New take on classical realism
❖ Research and explain the world, political states, systems etc. as it really is (does not
rely on normative approach)
❖ The central neorealist premise is that "the existence of several states in anarchy
renders the security of each one problematic and encourages them to compete with
each other for power or security" (Walt)
❖ Where classical realism emphasized the role of human nature, neorealism
emphasized the anarchic nature of the international system
❖ The struggle for power is not an end in itself; rather it is a means to security in an
international system characterized by anarchy
❖ As a consequence of the anarchic nature of the system, survival is the main
motivating factor for states… States cannot rely on a supranational authority or any
other state to protect them from other states…. Underlying this assumption is that
cooperation among states is difficult to achieve
❖ The acquisition of power is the main concept of states
Slide 6: Liberalism
❖ Liberals share common values with the earlier idealists, especially the call for strong
international institutions that can facilitate cooperation.. At the heart of the liberal
approach is the notion of ideas
➢ Notion of ideas: ideas such as democracy, human rights, free trade, the rule of
law can shape the international system
➢ Promote peace through democracy (neoconservative approach)
❖ Similarities between liberalism and idealism include:
➢ Optimistic view of human nature
➢ International institutions to provide order
➢ Domestic political structure
❖ Important for shaping behaviour in the international system
❖ The differences include:
➢ The degree to which international organizations and institutions can enforce
international laws and bind states
■ Neoliberals are not convinced by this