POL208Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Security Dilemma, Human Nature, Offensive Realism
Document Summary
Realists see the world as a collection of sovereign states in constant competition for power and security, raison d"etat (reason of the state) Must emass as much power as possible to keep security. Analogy to thomas hobbes state of nature in which life is nasty, brutish, and short. Measure for what is legitimate or not legitimate is based on rationality. In order to figure out what is reasonable for people to accept is to get a feel of what it"s like living outside of a state, without a sovereign. The reality in the world is that there are resources out there but there is always a limited supply. The other reality is that there are always individuals that want more than they already have. The only way to get resources is taking them to other people. In a state of nature in the absence of government, there is a necessity of a war against all where morality is strictly impossible.
