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John J Mearsheimer

1219 Words5 Pages

John J. Mearsheimer is a political scientist and a self described offensive realist, and in his book the Tragedy of Great Power Politics Mearsheimer describes and defends his views. From my understanding, an offensive realist is someone who believes in 3 main properties of the state. Firstly, offensive realist believe that states are inertly insecure about their own countries security, and this has a momentous effect on how countries behave. Next, an offensive realist believes that there are no “status quo powers” in any international system. Finally, offensive realist, such as Mearsheimer, believes that the main goal of all great powers is to first become a regional hegemon and then, eventually, a global hegemon. Mearsheimer also spends a considerable amount of time describing what he calls “the stopping power of water”. I believe that these ideas are mostly false. In this essay I hope to offer my opinion on each of these main points of Mearsheimer’s the Tragedy of Great Power Politics and offensive realism itself. Mearsheimer believes that states are always paranoid of the power of their neighbor and states fear that a more powerful state may take it’s sovereignty. Offensive realist …show more content…

Mearsheimer states that it is too costly for a state to cross a body of water to invade their enemies, this is why the U.K doesn’t have territories in Europe and Germany couldn’t capture the U.K during world war two. I mostly agree with this, but I also think that when a state is powerful enough it can overcome this boundary. America was able to fight wars with the Spanish and Japanese over great expanses of water and the U.K was able to capture and hold many foreign colonies despite being surrounded by water. Also, as technology advances, it may be even easier to quickly and efficiently transport and support troops across

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