AS.190.209 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Defensive Realism, Offensive Realism, Old Prussians
4 Sep 2016
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German problem & how it relates to the balance of power. Examine the role of the bop in the present international system. Look at the wars of frederick the great and bismarck and see how these wars took place in the context of the bop system and how both contributed to the german. For three centuries (1700s, 1800s, and 1900s), germany was in the center of many. Problem can be seen through the three waltzian images. In terms of the third image, the explanation for the german problem is simply a new power emerging in a settled international environment. Germany was independent only in 1871, and was a huge powerful country emerging in the midst of an already settled europe. Calleo suggests, any country confronting that kind of situation, flanked by weaker states, would seek to actualize its power and would become a disruptive expansionist force.
