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Liberalism And Realism: Two Key Theories Of International Relations

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Q: IS LIBERALISM A FORM OF REALISM?

Liberalism and realism are the two key theories of international relations. Realism is the first school of thought in international relations. The tradition of realism is traced back to the history of Thucydides in 5th century. The concept of realism originated all the way back from Peloponnesian war (between Athenians and Spartans around 420 BC). After Second World War, realism emerged as accepted wisdom in international relations because of the clear lessons that war appeared to reiterate. Whereas Liberalism stands for state’s internal political strength as the key factor for its foreign policy. Liberalism fully exploded as a comprehensive movement against the old order during the French Revolution, which …show more content…

When this political motive was implied to an economic, caused primarily by accumulated war debts following the eight year war with Iran, the annexation of Kuwait seemed to be a solution of Iraq’s problems. The Iraqi president Saddam Hussein also assumed that the west would not use force to defend Kuwait, a miscalculation fuelled by memory of support the west had given Iraq during Iran- Iraq war. The invasion of Kuwait on 2 august 1990 led to a series of UN resolutions calling for Iraq to withdraw unconditionally. Economic sanctions were applied while the US led coalitions of international forces gathered in Saudi Arabia. Operation “desert storm” crushed the Iraqi resistance in a matter of six weeks. The 1990 gulf war had revived the UN doctrine of collective security, although a number of doubts remained about the under lying motivations for the war and the way in which it was fought. President George h. bush declared that the war was more than one small country. It was a big idea in order to settle disputes and maintain peace. In the gulf war both combination of realistic and liberal approaches can be seen. The US political strategies based on realistic and liberal approaches are evident in this event as well.

The events of Korean War, Truman doctrine, Marshal Plan, Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam War, thaw in Sino-US relation and Afghan war were purely aiding realist However ,some of the popular events including Demise of USSR with absence of US-USSR intense competition, West European Integration into single entity(European Community),wave of democratization around the world chiefly in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, least risks of war between great powers weakened realism’s spirit in the field of International

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Now all the military intervention, losses, and aid to stop communism now seemed unnecessary. The government began to panic because it wanted to protect its ginormous military establishment, and keep foreign peace down and ultimately keep it’s own economic interests out of jeopardy. The Bush administration created foreign interventions known to the public as a “national interest” which lead to more taxes and loss of life. The Bush administration came up with a plan that involved launching two wars in order to combat peace and prove a strong military was still necessary. As a result, wars in Panama and Iraq broke out.

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Operation Desert Storm was one of the major events that happened during this time. Operation Desert Storm is also known as the Persian Gulf War, the war started when Iraq's president Saddam Hussein ordered for an invasion on Kuwait in 1990. Due to Husseins threat Saudi Arabia and Egypt got the United States involved in hopes of helping Kuwait, Saddam Hussein refused to retract his army from Kuwait, so Operation Desert Storm began. Operation Desert Storm lasted for 42 days (about 1 and a half months), on the last day President Bush retracted the United States Army and called for a cease fire. General Colin Powell was one of the generals during the Gulf War he states “Our strategy to go after this [Iraqi] army is very simple.

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Interestingly, Captain Kirk displayed examples of liberalism and realism simultaneously. It is these actions of the two warring enemies in which the conflict begins and appropriately ends. To move on, the theories of realism and liberalism must be expounded upon. Realism, as a theory, deals with how the world is perceived, and it predominantly focuses on the true nature of man. The state of the world is anarchy according to this theory.

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In 1667, when anyone submitted an idea to the Royal Society, Hooke was the scientist to contact in order to begin experiments on said idea. Therefore, Hooke was the most prominent member of Society because the Curator of Experiments was the spearhead of the experimental and developmental stages of ideas. The Royal Society during his tenure poured massive amounts of work on his plate, but he prevailed and even found the time to present experiments of his own deriving from other experiments he had performed. Hooke also was immensely busy and thus unable – or in some cases unwilling, pending a way of profiting from the enterprise via letters patent to develop all of his own ideas. This was a time of immense scientific progress, and numerous ideas were developed in several places simultaneously.

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The Pitfalls of Liberalism was a document by Stokely Carmichael who is known as one of the most recognized exponents of the “Black Power.” Movement. Stokely Carmichaels main argument in this document is that the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King along with other civil rights activists had reached an endpoint since the use of “Widespread resistance within America” (238) was in effect. Throughout the semester, we have never seen a document where a leaders only solution to advance is by “calling for the mobilization of organized violence by African-Americans in order to seize political power” (238). The concept of calling upon one single race to take action is new.

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From these, liberal ideals are portrayed to have two main strands with one founded on liberal nationalism while the other on liberal internationalism (Reitan 43). The rational foreign policy approach that that elite policy-makers can consider when confronted with an international hurdle would be similar to the approach adopted in the film. By first securing themselves, the focus is first given to the maintenance of the national sovereignty and the security of liberal institutions at home. In that case, foreign policy should begin with liberal nationalism. Such was evident in the movie as the United States began by securing itself (Reitan 43).

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The first Liberal Internationalists, including Wilson, were a very ethnocentric, non diverse group. They had two driving questions that they wanted to have answered from their new ideology. Those questions were, how do we prevent war, and what causes war? When analyzing these questions, liberal internationalists focused on both the domestic and international level. When examined at the domestic level, Liberal Internationalists concluded that illiberal, nondemocratic regimes are to blame for wars, and the only way to prevent wars was by allowing nations self determination through democracy.

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The theory unleashes such dynamic forces that from the time of its inception up till now it has governed the international system of the world however things one day itself fall apart. The Realists mark the State as the locus of different international circles and these sovereign states have vested interests which are always selfish. Realism is a heartless theory, man is not supposed to be selfish in the way exaggerated by the Realist thinker however [he] is a seeker of knowledge and what so ever he stumbles upon, he keeps

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4.0 An Explanation of Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism and Post-Structuralism. 4.1 Realism Realism or political realism prioritizes national interests and security concerns in addition to moral ideology and social reconstruction. The term is often associated with political power. The term is often associated with political power. Realism believes that the state is the main actor of the most important in determining the direction of a country.

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Liberal is a paradigm which is a belief in the positive uses of government to bring justice, equality of opportunity, peace and looks more to the nature of state. Liberalism is a philosophy based on the belief about the ultimate value of individual freedom and the opportunities for human progress. Liberalism is talking about rationality, moral autonomy, human rights, democracy, opportunity, and choice that built upon commitment to the principles of freedom and equality. There is a long traditional in Liberal thinking about international relations’ characteristic. . Liberalist are thinking how to create a peaceful relation among country up to relation among individual and one of the sytemic and deeper explanation is brought by a German philospher, Immanuel Kant with his essay entitled “Perpetual Peace” .

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Idealism and Realism are two strongly opposed views of foreign policy. At the core of this opposition is the issue of power and security in politics. Realism establishes a separation between politics and ethics in order to understand and comprehend international events. Realists don’t oppose morality to politics, nor power to law, but rather oppose the utopian peaceful society to the nature of society.

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Classical realism and structural realism are both theories of International Relations, therefore huge differences are noticed in between those two. The main difference lies in the motivation to power, which is seen differently by both theories. Classical realism is concentrated in the desire of power- influence, control and dominance as basic to human nature. Whereas, structural realism is focused on the international system anarchic structure and how the great powers behave. Classical realists believe that power is related to human nature, thus their analysis of individuals and states is similar.

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Also, Realism ideas believe that state would act according to their own ideas and needs when Liberalism believes that state would act according to citizens ideas and needs. Realism believes in conflicts, aggression, militaristic expansions and Liberalism believes in measuring of power trough countries economy, in the cooperation and peace, in the nation/people`s rights and in ideas of political and nations/peoples freedom. Also, Realism believes that United Nation is pointless because organization cant keeps another state what it wants for example: (Russian annexation of Crimea and Russian occupation in Georgia) but actually Liberalism believes that United Nations can`t force states to obey the organization, but Liberals think that UN is still important in our reality. Liberalism just believes that international organizations like United Nations, give states the ways in which to cooperate with each other and to gain one another's trust. Also Realists argue that all states have same interests and all countries are interested in increasing

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The Theory of Idealism in International Relations. Ojochogwu Aladi Enape Schiller International University. The theories in International relations are assertions that try to explain and justify how international structures work and the characteristics of ever changing interactions across territories.

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The international relations schools of thought known as Realism and Idealism identify specific and similar characteristics of actors in the conceptual development of their theories. While many of these characteristics can be generalized as being synonymous with the two theories, both theories make a separate distinction in what specifically constitutes an actor. In Realism, the term “actor” refers directly and solely to the state: a combination of government, leaders, decision-makers, etc, that act as a unitary entity to promote the interests of the state. Idealists, however, expand on what constitutes an actor to include both the state and people. Not only do the principles of Idealism assert that the state and people should be considered actors, in fact, both they must be viewed as actors.

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