AFR 370 Lecture Notes - Kenneth Waltz, Great Depression, Security Dilemma

• School: ASU
• Department: African and African American Studies
• Course: AFR 370
• Professor: Robert Short

Document Summary

Notes of realism leaders to focus on interests rather than on ideology. Maximizing and preserve the life of the state in a hostile and threatening environment the survival of the state can never be guaranteed that the environment that states inhabit is a dangerous place. Warn state leaders against sacrificing their own self-interests in order to obey to some unspecified notion of ethical" conduct. It was vital that state leaders learned a different kind of morality, dual moral standard. Outside the boundaries of the state, realists argue that a condition of anarchy exists (no overarching central authority). Under anarchy, the survival of the state cannot be guaranteed. States with more power stand a better chance of surviving than states with less power. Like the pursuit of power, the promotion of the national interest is, according to realists, an iron law of necessity.