Throughout the rather unusual book, “Theories of International Politics and Zombies”, written by prominent Tufts University Professor Dr. Daniel W. Drezner, the readers of this publication are given insight to the various possibilities of governmental responses (referring to the theories of international relations) to a zombie plague. According to Professor Drezner today, in age, the world faces several “natural sources of fear” (pg. 1) and these issues may range from acts of terrorism, deadly contagions, financial crisis, global cyberwarfare, etc. However, Dr. Drezner stresses the growing importance of the ridiculed issue of a zombie apocalypse, considering it an equally important matter, if not a more significant challenge which humanity will eventually face. He describes what sorts of measures modern governments would take to prevent said calamity.
It fallows from this starting point that there are objective moral facts which we have access to via our reason, that under ideal conditions will lead us toward indisputable moral truth. If there are indisputable moral facts then it is reasonable to think that when people disagree, at least one person must be wrong about relevant moral facts, or they aren’t properly using their reason. This seems to conflict with our experience of the world around us, wherein many people disagree about morality on a regular basis, and for prolonged periods of time. Still the moral realist holds that these disagreements aren’t fundamental, and are instead superficial disagreements. Realists make the distinction between fundamental and superficial moral disagreements because people are easily confused about what constitutes a true disagreement.
Realism, in its most general form, closely ties power and survival, explaining that there cannot be survival without power, and that the state consists of rational thinkers that have this is at their best interest and who act as one. The main contributors to the theory of realism include Thucydides, Machiavelli and Hobbes. Thucydides’ contribution to the theory of realism lies mostly in one of the earliest scholarly works in history, History of the Peloponnesian War, which
The present state of the world is not the proof of philosophy’s impotence, but the proof of philosophy’s power. It is philosophy that has brought men to this state—it is only philosophy that can lead them out. — Ayn Rand, 1961 Look around the world, and you will see something that would have shocked anyone living in the after-math of 9/11. Following the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, with thousands of our citizens killed, Americans were rightly outraged—and their (healthy) response was to demand retaliation. Our leaders in Washington insisted that the people who attacked us would be made to pay.
Realist Perspective of the War: According to realists, the International Political system is anarchical. There is no sovereign entity ruling above the sovereign states in the world. Whilst this anarchy needs not to be chaotic, for various member states of the international
What is International Relations? International Relations is concerned with relations across boundaries of nation-states. It addresses international political economy, global governance, intercultural relations, national and ethnic identities, foreign policy analysis, development studies, environment, international security, diplomacy, terrorism, media, social movements and more. It is a multidisciplinary field that does not restrict students to one approach and employs a variety of methods including discourse analysis, statistics and comparative and historical analysis.
Conversely, it is important to recognize the other side of Jacksonian Democracy. The other side of Jacksonian Democracy paints a more negative picture. This negative picture too can be linked together with the President Trump’s administration. Taesuh Cha contents, “Jacksonian worldview has been analyzed as an illiberal, populist ideological system that stems from the early modern inter-civilizational conflict between European settlers and Native Americans. This tradition imaginatively constructs the United States as “a folk community bound together by deep cultural and ethnic ties…definition of populism as an ideology which pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous others helps us understand Jacksonianism as a variant of the U.S. populist movement” (Cha 85).
Interventionism is at its core the idea that one nation can and ought to interfere in the affairs of another nation. Typically this is done on behalf of specific groups in a nation that have already been in some sort of conflict with the governing body. Interfering in this conflict almost always results in a terrible loss of life and resources for all parties involved. Realpolitik is the idea that any and all measures ought to be considered when conducting foreign affairs. Usually these measures are considered in brutally realistic regards and are undertaken without regard for most moral issues this would cause.
The current work is meant to explain the differences and similarities between the most dominant theories in international relations, Realism and Liberalism, both theories have some similarities and differences but much more important and interesting is to discuss and explain what differs and makes similar both theories. Conflicts and wars, Similarities and differences between Realism and Liberalism: Both Liberalism and Realism believes that there is no world government that can prevent countries to go to war on one another. For both theories military power is important and both Realism and Liberalism can understand that countries can use military power to get what they need or want. Also, both theories are conscious that without military
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK It involves using theories to explain the existing problem in various situations. Realism theory and the dependency theory will be used to explain the existing conflict between Israel and Palestine. It will also be able to justify the use of force by the Israeli government when dealing with Palestinian Hamas. Realism theory in the Israeli and Palestine conflict Realism theory explains how states are selfish, struggle to gain power and succeed in acquiring its national interests in the international system. Realists identify world politics as a trans-historical and trans-geographical struggle for power, and that in this context Thucydides’ dictum that, “the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept” (where strength and weakness are calculated by military capabilities) is the stark and universal truth (Schmidt, 2007; Thucydides, 1972, p. 402).
Classical realism and structural realism are both theories of International Relations, therefore huge differences are noticed in between those two. The main difference lies in the motivation to power, which is seen differently by both theories. Classical realism is concentrated in the desire of power- influence, control and dominance as basic to human nature. Whereas, structural realism is focused on the international system anarchic structure and how the great powers behave. Classical realists believe that power is related to human nature, thus their analysis of individuals and states is similar.
As the famous saying goes, “The strong do what they will while the weak do what they must," so let it be with the counties of the world and the role they play in International Politics. Eurocentrism is a concept that places Europe at the centre of the world. Assuming that it is self containing and self representing, the entire world is looked at with Europe at the centre. Eurocentrism bias leads to an illogical understanding of International Relations and makes politics and judgement to incline in the favour of the powerful. In this essay, I will critique the Eurocentric nature of International Relations theory and world politics.
“Babel” is a movie of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s that tells stories from Morocco, America, Mexico and Japan, all connected by the thoughtless act of a child, and demonstrates how each culture works against each other to compound the repercussions. Realism is a school of thought that explains international relations in terms of power. The exercise of power by states toward each other is sometimes called realpolitik, or just power politics. And it is also related to the selfishness of the people and the states by the same time.
Actors have interests; while realists such as Machiavelli insist the state is the only unit of analysis necessary in international politics, idealists argue that just as states have interests, people in government have interests as well. Therefore, Realism and Idealism begin their assessment of actors from two different perspectives, however, both schools of thought go on to identify many characteristics of actors which are largely similar. For both realists and idealists, actors are autonomous; they exist independently and retain sovereign rights over material and non-material resources. In both Realism and Idealism actors are said to possess prioritized interests and preferences.
The post-world war era created an atmosphere of caution regarding individual states in an international system dominated by realist rationale. Thus, based on functionalist principles it was believed that a United Europe was a more acceptable and viable alternative. It was believed that the international system would be more functional with organizations directed at collectively addressing functional needs rather than the realist orientation of each State for itself. This, however, did not materialize until the formation of the European Union (EU) in 1958 and arose out of the functionalist school of thought.
