International Realism and the Science of Politics: Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Neorealism

Forde, Steven

doi:10.2307/2600844

Cited by 74 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In line with the existing literature on the theoretical aspect of small state foreign policy the predominant theoretical framework will be that of neo-realism (Demir 2008;Duursma 1996;Elman 1995;Forde 1995;Hey 2003;Hinnebusch 2006;Keohane 1988). Neo-realism assumes that it is international constraints that influence state behaviour, in general overriding domestic interests and internal political struggles (Elman 1995, 172).…”

Section: Small State Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The foreign policy options of a small unrecognised state: the case of Abkhazia

Frear

2014

Caucasus Survey

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The study of international relations has historically focused on the activities of large, powerful states, dismissing the smaller entities of the international system as unimportant or merely objects of policy for the larger entities. This truism extends especially to those entities that exist in an unrecognised or partially recognised limbo, neither a full part of the international system nor an ungoverned space. Yet in the post-Cold War world, following the dissolution of large multinational states such as the USSR, these entities have begun to proliferate. This proliferation provides a significant challenge to an international system in which the primary participants are states, and to the institutions created to oversee their interaction. Unrecognised entities, existing outside of this framework, represent a threat to the universal principle of sovereignty, that one true institutionalised aspect of international relations. As such the study of these entities and their interaction with the world outside their borders is a study important for a systemic understanding of contemporary international relations. This article aims to address the foreign policy of one such entity, Abkhazia.

show abstract

Section: Small State Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The foreign policy options of a small unrecognised state: the case of Abkhazia

Frear

2014

Caucasus Survey

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite realism’s ostensible dominance in American IR theory (Forde 1995:141), realists have long assumed that the American public is either incapable of supporting realist foreign policies, or inherently opposed to them. In the former line of argument, most forcibly presented in the postwar writings of Walter Lippmann, Hans Morgenthau, George Kennan, and Gabriel Almond, among others, mass public opinion was seen as volatile, ill‐structured, and incoherent, suffering from “formless and plastic moods” that impairs prudent and focused policymaking (Almond 1950:53–65).…”

Section: A Brief History Of Realismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folk Realism: Testing the Microfoundations of Realism in Ordinary Citizens1

Kertzer,

McGraw

2012

International Studies Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Kertzer, Joshua D. and Kathleen M. McGraw. (2012) Folk Realism: Testing the Microfoundations of Realism in Ordinary Citizens. International Studies Quarterly, doi: 10.1111/j.1468‐2478.2011.00715.x  © 2012 International Studies Association International Relations scholars have long debated whether the American public is allergic to realism, which raises the question of how they would “contract” it in the first place. We argue that realism isn’t just an IR paradigm, but a belief system, whose relationship with other ideological systems in public opinion has rarely been fully examined. Operationalizing this disposition in ordinary citizens as “folk realism,” we investigate its relationship with a variety of personality traits, foreign policy orientations, and political knowledge. We then present the results of a laboratory experiment probing psychological microfoundations for realist theory, manipulating the amount of information subjects have about a foreign policy conflict to determine whether uncertainty leads individuals to adopt more realist views, and whether realists and idealists respond to uncertainty and fear differently. We find that many of realism’s causal mechanisms are conditional on whether subjects already hold realist views, and suggest that emotions like fear may play a larger role in realist theory than many realists have assumed.

show abstract

“…Primary Actors— On one side of this issue stand the state‐centrists, who argue that the legal structure of sovereignty and the concentration of destructive capacity in the hands of governments mean that states remain the most important actors on the world stage at the present time. This position is usually associated with realism (Waltz 1979:158–159; Forde 1995:144; Harvey 1999:866), but state‐centrism can also be found in neoliberal‐institutional theory (Baldwin 1993; Lake 1996) and some variants of constructivism (Wendt 1992:424, 1999). On the other side stand those scholars whose work departs from a different set of assumptions: the primacy of individuals and private social groups (Moravcsik 1997:516–517), the influence of international organizations (Finnemore 1996) and transnational social movements (Keck and Sikkink 1998), and the importance of firms and other economic actors (Keohane and Milner 1996).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Paradigmatic Faults in International-Relations Theory

Jackson

Nexon

2009

International Studies Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

American scholars routinely characterize the study of international relations as divided between various Kuhnian “paradigms” or Lakatosian “research programmes.” Although most international relations scholars have abandoned Kuhn’s account of scientific continuity and change, many utilize Lakatosian criteria to assess the “progressive” or “degenerative” character of various theories and approaches in the field. We argue that neither specific areas of inquiry (such as the “democratic peace”) nor broader approaches to world politics (such as realism, liberalism, and constructivism) deserve the label of “paradigms” or “research programmes.” As an alternative, we propose mapping the field through Weberian techniques of ideal‐typification.

show abstract

International Realism and the Science of Politics: Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Neorealism

Cited by 74 publications

References 45 publications

The foreign policy options of a small unrecognised state: the case of Abkhazia

The foreign policy options of a small unrecognised state: the case of Abkhazia

Folk Realism: Testing the Microfoundations of Realism in Ordinary Citizens1

Paradigmatic Faults in International-Relations Theory

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About