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Realism In Sun Tzu's The Art Of War

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Realism is a political theory that has been used to explain why things happen and how event and trends relate to one another. It has a deep root ever since the ancient time when it was mentioned by practitioners like Sun Tzu (544-496 B.C) – the Chinese author of “The Art of War”; Thucydides (460-399 B.C) – a Greek historian and many other great thinkers during that time. However, not until the years surrounding World War II (1939-1945) did it become the dominant theory to explain the international relations at that time. Realism’s view of human nature is rather pessimistic. According to realists, individuals are selfish and competitive. They tend to pursue self-interest. Realists also believe in an anarchic international system in which there is no world government and states are sovereign political entities. The state is the principal actor: There could be other actors like international organization but they are just minors. State eventually will decide its action toward others and not depend on other actors. Moreover, State is said to be a unitary and rational actor which means when a decision is made by the head of a state, its individuals will act as one and it is capable of “identifying goals and preferences and determining their relative importance”. In an anarchic international system, states cannot depend on others but themselves. The most important issue for them is security – the ability to protect themselves from both domestic and foreign enemies. States always

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