Realism Vs Constructivism

THE REALITY OF REALISM As a theoretical framework for analysing conflict in the contemporary international system, realism is extremely realistic. Realism emphasises the persistent role of the ruler of territorial nation state in international relations, although, it does not account for the emergence of non-state actors and violent terrorist organisations (Kaldor, 2002). It assumes that states practice self help to ensure that the states survival by means of power, which is measured in terms of military capabilities, however, it does not acknowledge international situations that are supposed to foster economic cooperation and reduce the need for power maximisation (Kaldor, 2002). Realism’s central theme of The Balance Of Power has been undermined

Realism has been the prevailing hypothesis of world governmental issues subsequent to the start of scholastic global relations. The hypothesis was made known after the First World War when realists got in a civil argument with the optimism for the result of the war. The romantics concentrated more on comprehension the reason for war to discover a solution for its presence. Here came the realists who overlooked the part of force and overestimated the extent to which the country states shared an arrangement of regular intrigues and were excessively hopeful that mankind could defeat the scourge of war. This hypothesis gives the most effective clarification to the condition of war what is the normal state of life in the universal framework. For the realists the focal issue of worldwide legislative issues is war, the utilization of power. Force is essential

For example, neither realists nor liberals predicted the end of the Cold War, nor could they explain it satisfactorily after the fact. Constructivists emphasize the importance of ideas and culture in shaping both the reality and the discourse of international politics. They stress the ultimate subjectivity of interests and their links to changing identities. There are many types of constructivists, but they all tend to agree that neither realism nor liberalism paints a true picture of the world and that we need not just explanations of how things are, but explanations of how they come to be. Constructivists have focused on important questions about identities, norms, culture, national interests, and international governance.5 They believe that leaders and other people are

Therefore, through constructivism perspective the absence of direct war between great powers after the Cold War can be explained by rules and norms, such as international law of war and human rights norms, along with states’ identities and

MAIN IDEA OF REALISM, LIBERALISM AND CONSTRUCTIVISM Realism is the interpretation that world politics is motivated by competitive self-interest. Realists then believe that the significant dynamic among states is a struggle for power in an exertion to preserve or, if possible, expand its army security and economic benefit in competition with other states. Moreover, realists perceive this battle for power as a zero-sum game, in which an achievement for one state is certainly a loss for others. Realists are also possible to perceive humanity as integrally shared by national commitment to states or other identity for example culture or religion.

Structural realism vs neo-liberalism In the course of international relations some of the schools that we learnt are realism and liberalism. Realism is known as political realism and it’s sometimes contrasted with other schools such as idealism or liberalism, which is concentrated on cooperation (Sheku, pg.1-9). Regarding realism, there are 4 proposals that realists assert: first of all international system is anarchic, states are considered as the most important actors and are unitary as well, and the last but not least is that survival is the main concern for all states (Sheku, pg.1-9).Realism has many types within its school and one of them is neorealism or in other words structural realism, which tries to explain why states that are equal do not act similarly (Joulukuu, 2008). Structural realists are called as realist because the realists assert that the ambition of a country’s foreign policy is based upon their power

Finally, as an addendum, this paper expounds why cooperation was possible in the midst of conflict during Cold War using games theory and the Nash equilibrium. 2. POLITICAL REALISM AND NATIONAL INTEREST The realist theory, including classic and neo-realists, suggest that people in general are selfish and aggressive. Hans Morgenthau, the father of Political Realism, stated that all international politics is a struggle for power, and that a state’s main goal is national security.

Realism The so called Realists sometimes referred to as “Neorealists” or “Structural Realists”, argues that everything outside ones borders is defined by anarchy and the total absence of any authority. The international system is comprised of autonomous thus sovereign states and realists believe that there cannot exist an inherent structure or society between them. The state power is the key in the anarchic system, the variable of interests and the only way to defend oneself and survive.

Realism holds that the global framework gives impetuses to development just under particular conditions. Rebellion makes circumstances whereby the instruments that one state uses to build its security diminish the safety of different countries. This security situation makes states stress over each other's future goals and relative power. Sets of states may seek after absolute security looking for methodologies, yet accidentally create spirals of natural antagonism, or struggle. States frequently seek after expansionist approaches because their pioneers erroneously trust that animosity is the best way to make their country

Foreign policy seen as instrument for building bridges amongst states and deal with social construction that shapes national identitiy. The relationship might be investigated in three chief ways, that is, in terms of the role actors and bureaucracies play in shaping foreign policy, the process of decision-making, and the effect of international system or society on the conduct of foreign policy by states. For constructivism, foreign policy originally a product coming from socio-cultural constructions. The states shared understandings and determines their interest and the foreign policy to secure

While liberalism violates liberal democratic foundations, constructivism provides an alternative theoretical framework to understand this phenomenon. Constructivism emphasizes the aspect of identity that shapes social and political actions through normative and material structures (Reus-Smit, p. 188). The significance of normative and material structures illustrates how they shape the behaviour of socio-political actors (individuals and/or states). Furthermore, constructivism argues that political action is influenced by shared beliefs and ideas that consists of structural characteristics, these shared ideas, values, and beliefs manifest greatly in shaping the individual/state (Reus-Smit, p. 196). Additionally, social and political actors identities

In deciding, if social approach is the process of how one learns, I must first ask how learning is broken down. In the Yilmaz article they discussed that learning is broken into 3 categories Behaviorism ,Cognitivism, and Constructivism. They discovered that behaviorist focused more on teacher-centered instruction, while Cognitive and constructivism focuses more on the individual. Since cognitive and constructivism focuses on how a person acquires/stores knowledge this lead educators to shift their approach. I agree that to understand how a person learns, more attention must be focused on the individual. As a product of American school system, I noticed that our education system lumps students into groups even if we have different learning styles.

The realist theory stresses the constraints on politics imposed by human selfishness and the absence of international government. The theory further emphasizes that states are sovereign and are motivated by national interests. The United States of America has acted as the world’s police interfering in other states’ matters especially if the state can benefit them. A specific example of this such

Whilst realism and liberalism provides some concrete peace proposals in the global theory of relations, both of them are not devoid of the lines of fault which actually exhibit few of the problems that lies within their peace arguments. Taking the theory of liberal democratic peace, which has been regarded as “almost as an empirical law in global relations”, which has its pitfalls where it fails to address the states democracy, and their perceptions towards nations who are non-democratic (Downs & Mesquita, 2004). The pre-occupation of liberalism view with an agenda that is normative like universal appeal and human rights has provided liberals to disregard their countries’ sovereignty where governments that are non-democratic prevails. Liberals

There is an extensive literature on the problem of relative gains and the differences between neoliberal institutionalism and structural realist theory. The neoliberal theory assumes that states only care about their absolute payoff and disregards the gains of other. It stresses the prospects for cooperation and whether it results in a relative gain or loss is ignored as long as it brings an absolute gain. On the contrary, neorealist theory assumes that the states care about relative achievements and instead highlights the prospect for conflict (Powell, 1991). The rationale for the realist theory is that the states care about the relative payoffs when they are jointly produced, since an asymmetrically advantaging state can have implications in negotiation and bargaining power among states and lead to further asymmetries. Hence, the problem of relative gains imbalances in a cooperative outcome leads to the realist theory of cooperative failure (Grieco, 1988). The neorealists emphasise two impediments of cooperation, the relative gains and enforcement. However, the neoliberalists disregard the former, which is argued to have real consequences on the understanding of the problem of cooperation (Snidal, 1991). These two views have implications on the how the states preferences are modelled in terms of utility. If the states (or subjects) not only considers their own self-interest but