POLS 2940 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Security Dilemma, Nuclear Proliferation, Neoclassical Realism
13 Oct 2017
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Document Summary
Theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence. The study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity. The dominant and perhaps oldest theory of international relations. Represents the way the world is said to work. Looks for answers to causal questions - why things happen. We can look at the world system and nation-states - look at enduring structures and continuities of international a airs - basic inevitable tendencies which shape world politics. Focuses on international politics between nation-states as a basic struggle for power. Focus on state interests - rather than looking at ways states are shaped by particular ideologies. Dismiss questions on morality, legality, ethics - more peripheral than core interests. Ancient greece & western thought (thucydides, machiavelli, hobbes, rousseau) - state interests and power politics. Modern realism - breakdown of post-wwi order - rise of axis powers, outbreak of wwii.
