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Defensive Realism Revisited By Jeffrey Taliaferro: Article Analysis

830 Words4 Pages

International relations refers to the nature of collaborations between two or more nations. Moreover, it defines the uniting factors that countries seek when establishing partnerships. In the article “Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited” by Jeffrey Taliaferro, the author attempts to determine whether international systems provide motivation for nations to expand their territories. Two primary strands of contemporary theories have been utilized to provide answers to the queries made by the article, namely offensive realism and defensive realism (Taliaferro, 2001). Yet, both concepts offer different solutions to the international relations, defensive realism appears more efficient since it provides optimism and incentives for nations to maximize relative security.
The difference between offensive realism and defensive realism is highlighted by the latter’s focus on anarchy. According to the offensive context, the lack of global governance and universal sovereignty gives an incentive for countries to expand their operations. Consequently, all nations seek to identify the ways through which they can improve their dominance over their …show more content…

This approach is consistent with relative power since security enhancements in one country depend on similar changes in another nation. As such, states may experience a security problem since they must take another country’s armed potential and foreign policy into account. Thus, defensive realism promotes collaborations between nations regarding the development of security-seeking strategies. This form of realism advocates for moderation in creating security approaches due to the possibility of massive variations in international expansions. The conditions for developments ensure that states consider relative power when entering into collaborations with

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