GVPT 200 Blog #1

Thomas Shelton

GVPT 200 FC01

Mark Shirk

Blog Post #1

               The idea of realism described by Morgenthau in his book Six Principles of Political Realism has been an extremely effective and widely used concept to maintain security and power throughout history. While many of the principles of realism are indeed timeless, in this day and age I believe there are other political theories such as liberalism and constructivism that are better at dealing with issues from the modern age as well being well received by the inhabitants of a nation.

               The two main principles of realism are power and security which must be maintained for nation to survive, while both constructivism and liberalism share this same concept their definitions of power and security and much different. Realism argues that power is defined by the military might of a nation and through this military is able to maintain its security by conquest or intimidation.  Liberalism sees power as a combination of military and economy strength as its definition. This applies to the modern era much more effectively as there are many nations around the world who hold almost absolutely no military strength but taken very seriously because their economy. The Unites Arab Emirates comes to mind as it is a small union of cities who are extremely wealthy because of their trade with other nations and use this demand for their services to get anything they want including respect from other larger nations.

               The one exception to realism being out dated is their theories about states in anarchy with realists seeing anarchy as the cause many global conflicts because there is nobody to hold accountable for the states actions. Liberalism claims you can reason with anarchist states to cooperate with you however the way that I see it is that the only reason the anarchist state is cooperating with you is so that they can something away from the deal. Although as soon as the anarchist state’s goal has been achieved you can guarantee they will be just as unpredictable before the deal or even change their mind during and turn against the nation they are working with. A recent example of this would be the US intervention in Somalia, with the absence of a structured government nobody could be blamed for the actions of its inhabitants forcing the U.S to send troops to try and enforce their own laws the accountable party.

               In the modern age media plays a significant role in the wellbeing of a nation as it helps keep the public informed and up to date with current events and foreign policy. This also applies to the opposite where media can incite chaos and fear within a nations inhabitants. Realism is generally portrayed as the most pessimistic of the political theories because of the paranoid like behavior. This could have a severe adverse effect on the public if all they saw constant competition between nation’s military and decreased alliances between other nations. The public would much rather see constructivism where nations were working together and creating beneficial relationships.  During the Cold war there was a constant threat of nuclear war between the US and Soviet Union which increased panic among the public as well as the government in both nations. Events that would usually blow over with quickly became nationwide crisis such as the Cuban missile crisis which the U.S army was elevated to DEFCON 2, the highest it has ever been in history. This constant state of paranoia enforced by realism causes more harm than help in the modern era because of major innovations in media.     

               While most of the principles of realism are timeless they are not well suited for use in the modern world because they are better options provided by other political theories. However if all else fails we know that realism can be used to get us back onto our feet until another theory can be adopted to suit our needs.