Table Of Content

Realism Reader The Realism Reader provides broad coverage of a centrally important tradition in the study of foreign policy and international politics. After some years in the doldrums, political realism is again in contention as a leading tradition in the international relations subfi eld. Divided into three main sections, the book covers seven different and distinctive approaches within the realist tradition: classical realism, balance of power theory, neorealism, defensive structural realism, offensive structural realism, rise and fall realism, and neoclassical realism. The middle section of the volume covers realism’s contributions on critiques leveled by liberalism, institutionalism, and constructivism and the English School. The fi nal section of the book provides materials on realism’s engagement with some contemporary issues in international politics, with collections on United States (U.S.) hegemony, European cooperation, and whether future threats will arise from non-state actors or the rise of competing great powers. The book offers a logically coherent and manageable framework for organizing the realist canon, and provides exemplary literature in each of the traditions and dialogues that are included in the volume. The Realism Reader provides a “one-stop-shop” for undergraduates and masters students taking a course in contemporary international relations theory, with a particular focus on realism. Colin Elman is Associate Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. He has published articles in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, the International History Review, the American Political Science Review, International Security, and Security Studies. He is co-founder and Secretary-Treasurer of both the International History and Politics, and Qualitative and Multi-Method Research organized sections of the American Political Science Association, and co-founder and Executive Director of the Consortium for Qualitative Research Methods. Michael A. Jensen is a Faculty Research Associate at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), University of Maryland, where he serves as the Data Collection Manager for the Global Terrorism Database. He also currently teaches courses on international security and terrorism for the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining START, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, Syracuse University. This page intentionally left blank Realism Reader Edited by Colin Elman and Michael A. Jensen Routledge TRayolour &t Flreandcisg Geroup LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2014 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Colin Elman and Michael A. Jensen, selection and editorial matter; contributors their contributions. The right of Colin Elman and Michael A. Jensen to be identifi ed as editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Realism reader / edited by Colin Elman and Michael Jensen. — First edition pages cm Summary: “The Realism Reader provides broad coverage of a centrally important tradition in the study of foreign policy and international politics” — Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Realism—Political aspects. 2. International relations—Philosophy. 3. World politics. I. Elman, Colin. II. Jensen, Michael. JZ1307.R43 2011 327.101—dc23 2013021658 ISBN: 978-0-415-77354-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-77357-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-85857-9 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Contents Acknowledgements x 1 Introduction 1 SECTION ONE Realist research programs 31 2 Classical realism: The twentieth century 33 The beginnings of a science 35 EDWARD HALLETT CARR The realist critique 39 EDWARD HALLETT CARR The moral blindness of scientifi c man 47 HANS J. MORGENTHAU A realist theory of international politics 53 HANS J. MORGENTHAU Idealist internationalism and the security dilemma 60 JOHN H. HERZ The pole of power and the pole of indifference 62 ARNOLD WOLFERS 3 Balance of power theory 74 The balance of power: prescription, concept, or propaganda? 76 ERNST B. HAAS Aims 81 EDWARD VOSE GULICK Feedback 86 ROBERT JERVIS vi Contents Balancing on land and at sea: do states ally against the leading global power? 93 JACK S. LEVY AND WILLIAM R. THOMPSON 4 Neorealism 101 Political structures 103 KENNETH N. WALTZ Anarchic orders and balances of power 113 KENNETH N. WALTZ Realist thought and neorealist theory 124 KENNETH N. WALTZ The origins of war in neorealist theory 129 KENNETH N. WALTZ 5 Defensive structural realism 134 Cooperation under the security dilemma 136 ROBERT JERVIS Alliance formation and the balance of world power 145 STEPHEN M. WALT Introduction 150 STEPHEN VAN EVERA Realists as optimists: cooperation as self-help 157 CHARLES L. GLASER Breaking out of the security dilemma: realism, reassurance, and the problem of uncertainty 167 EVAN BRADEN MONTGOMERY 6 Offensive structural realism 177 Anarchy and the struggle for power 179 JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER Mearsheimer’s world: offensive realism and the struggle for security 188 GLENN H. SNYDER The “poster child for offensive realism”: America as a global hegemon 197 CHRISTOPHER LAYNE 7 Rise and fall realism 205 Power transition 207 A.F.K. ORGANSKI Contents vii The power transition research program: A Lakatosian analysis 211 JONATHAN M. DICICCO AND JACK S. LEVY The nature of international political change 218 ROBERT GILPIN Hegemonic war and international change 221 ROBERT GILPIN Declining power and the preventive motivation for war 226 JACK S. LEVY Neorealism and the myth of bipolar stability: toward a new dynamic realist theory of major war 234 DALE C. COPELAND 8 Neoclassical realism 243 The necessary and natural evolution of structural realism 245 CHARLES L. GLASER Introduction: neoclassical realism, the state, and foreign policy 253 JEFFREY W. TALIAFERRO, STEVEN E. LOBELL, AND NORRIN M. RIPSMAN Chain gangs and passed bucks: predicting alliance patterns in multipolarity 259 THOMAS J. CHRISTENSEN AND JACK SNYDER Unanswered threats: a neoclassical realist theory of underbalancing 265 RANDALL L. SCHWELLER Neoclassical realism and the national interest: presidents, domestic politics, and major military interventions 272 COLIN DUECK SECTION TWO Critiques and responses 275 9 Engaging liberal critiques 277 Taking preferences seriously: a liberal theory of international politics 279 ANDREW MORAVCSIK Is anybody not an (international relations) liberal? 287 BRIAN C. RATHBUN How liberalism produces democratic peace 292 JOHN M. OWEN Kant or cant: the myth of the democratic peace 301 CHRISTOPHER LAYNE viii Contents 10 Engaging the institutionalist critiques 311 Neoliberalism, neorealism, and world politics 313 DAVID A. BALDWIN Institutional theory as a research program 320 ROBERT O. KEOHANE AND LISA L. MARTIN Anarchy and the limits of cooperation: a realist critique of the newest liberal institutionalism 325 JOSEPH M. GRIECO The false promise of international institutions 330 JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER 11 Engaging the constructivist and English School critiques 342 Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics 344 ALEXANDER WENDT Culture clash: assessing the importance of ideas in security studies 353 MICHAEL C. DESCH The English School vs. American realism: a meeting of minds or divided by a common language? 361 RICHARD LITTLE A realist critique of the English School 370 DALE C. COPELAND SECTION THREE Realist theories and contemporary international politics 379 12 Realism, American hegemony, and soft balancing 381 The stability of a unipolar world 383 WILLIAM C. WOHLFORTH The unipolar illusion revisited: the coming end of the United States’ unipolar moment 396 CHRISTOPHER LAYNE Soft balancing against the United States 406 ROBERT A. PAPE Waiting for balancing: why the world is not pushing back 414 KEIR A. LIEBER AND GERARD ALEXANDER Contents ix 13 Realism and European cooperation 422 The future of the American pacifi er 424 JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER European Union security and defense policy: response to unipolarity? 430 BARRY R. POSEN Still not pushing back: why the European Union is not balancing the United States 440 JOLYON HOWORTH AND ANAND MENON 14 Realism, non-state actors, and the rise of China 450 Structural realism in a more complex world 452 CHARLES L. GLASER The security dilemma and ethnic confl ict 455 BARRY R. POSEN China’s unpeaceful rise 464 JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER The tragedy of offensive realism: classical realism and the rise of China 468 JONATHAN KIRSHNER 15 Is realism heading in the right direction? 481 The realist paradigm and degenerative versus progressive research programs: an appraisal of neotraditional research on Waltz’s balancing proposition 483 JOHN A. VASQUEZ Evaluating theories 493 KENNETH N. WALTZ The progressive power of realism 500 STEPHEN M. WALT Is anybody still a realist? 505 JEFFREY W. LEGRO AND ANDREW MORAVCSIK Correspondence: brother, can you spare a paradigm? 518 PETER D. FEAVER, GUNTHER HELLMAN, RANDALL L. SCHWELLER, JEFFREY W. TALIAFERRO, WILLIAM C. WOHLFORTH, JEFFREY W. LEGRO, AND ANDREW MORAVCSIK Index 524