"In the last resort, states with classical military forces prevail": How does the realist theory contribute to foreign policy?

Résumé du document

The theory is mainly a tool for the study of International Relations. It allows for the building of a conceptual framework upon which the events of world politics are analyzed. Theory provides with models that help unravel the mechanisms at work in the international system. Each theory is like a lens through which facts are seen. It is necessarily reductive, and relies on a determined set of assumptions. Different theories have different core assumptions, give importance to different facts, and reach different conclusions. Nevertheless, some of them manage to become widespread and influential in the field. Realist theory for instance has become in a few decades "one of the most influential theories" in IR. This theory emerged after WW1, when the failure of liberal principles, like collective security, set up by the League of Nations, failed and led to WW2. In his book The twenty year crisis"(1939), Carr highly criticizes liberalism, that he calls "utopianism", and advocates another way of analyzing and practicing international relations. An approach less normative, rooted in observation and facts.

Extraits

[...] Re-edition: Palgrave - BURCHILL Scott The national interest in international relations Palgrave Macmillan Chp “Conventional perspectives: realist approaches - WALTZ, Kenneth “Realist thought and Neorealist theory” in Journal of International Affairs, Spring/Summer90, Vol Issue p21 http://www.irchina.org/en/xueren/foreign/view.asp?id= - KISSINGER, Henry, Diplomacy, Simon and Schuster -WALT Stephen One world, many theories, Foreign Policy, Spring 1998 www.foreignpolicy.com/Ning/archive/archive/110/irelations.pdf 7 - BRAWLEY Mark R. Professor Department of Political Science McGill University Realism and the Management of Power: An Account of the cold war. February 2005 cepea.cerium.ca/IMG/pdf/isa_proceeding_57399.pdf 8 - CLARK, K Wesley, Winning Modern Wars. Iraq, terrorism and the American empire, ed Public affairs, New York - KALDOR Mary New and old wars: Organised violence in a global era, Polity press, Cambridge - NYE, Joseph, S. [...]

[...] The utmost reliance on the armed forces, the official discourses about the survival of the state and national security show how Israeli policy towards the Palestinians and the Arab states around is embedded in realist theory. We have seen how a theory can be a framework for study, but also a language through which foreign policy is constructed and expressed. However, it is now necessary to question how relevant realist theory is when it comes to playing a role in today's international relations. [...]

[...] For him the only element of the national interest that is common to all states is their concern for survival and security, and the will to protect their sovereign integrity from an exterior threat. Now, if we review the basic assumptions of realist theory with respect to the sentence the last resort, states with classical military forces prevail”, then the realist presuppositions contained in this sentence are clear. If the primary features of national interest are the state's survival, security and protection from the outside, and if we couple that with Morgenthau's idea of states competing in an anarchical international system, then military power becomes an important element to secure the state. [...]

[...] This new kind of terrorism is transnational, well funded by underground networks, and seem to have an overall coherent organisation. States wanting to fight it use asymmetrical methods, like the United states did with the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, by sending a huge army to seize a group of no more than a hundred terrorist leaders, the most prominent of which is Osama bin Laden, still on the loose today. General Clark analyses that followed the Cold war mind-set of assigning terrorists a state sponsor, a that could be attacked”[14]. [...]

[...] Russia did not pacify this region despite a large fraction of the army deployed there, and years of conflict. Guerrillas and terrorism seem to be a big challenge for traditional armies, and defy the statement saying that classical military forces prevail. Past situations also show that the best armed does not necessarily prevail in any case. The Americans in Viet Nam or the Soviets in Afghanistan also did not prevail against a small number of insurgents and guerrilleros, compared to their large armies. [...]