POLI 1501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: New Approach
5 Mar 2019
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Document Summary
Realism - philosophical/theoretical approach to ir that has existed for a while. You need to understand that other leaders fundamentally care about seeking power (pursuit of power) Theory of realism - why states act. They will pursue policies that yield the highest expected result in terms of power. Other leaders do this, and you should too. Social science approach to understand how states engage and interact with each other. Everyone lives within some sort of structure, and their choices are based on that structure. I. e. laws led microsoft to change their behavior (regulated regulated) The government liked the idea of competition. When the structure changed, the company had to change. There is no central authority over the use of force above countries. In the international system, states can invade each other without being punished by a higher authority. Maybe there will be punishment, maybe there won"t be. States can step in, but they are not a higher authority.
