Realism and the Logic of Statism, Survival, and Self-Help in International Relations

Abstract

Realism is a broad and influential theoretical framework in the study of international relations that emerged following the decline of the discredited idealist approach. Given that realism provides a practical guide for maximizing state interests in a hostile international environment, it helps explain why it continues to remain a dominant tradition in the study of international politics. This classical realism became dominant after the Second World War and identified the state as the major actor in the international system whose main goal is to pursue power as the logic of existence. For realists of all persuasions, the survival of the state can never be guaranteed because the use of force, which sometimes culminates in war, is a legitimate instrument of statecraft. The assumption that the state is the principal actor, backed up by the reality that the international environment that the state inhabits is a perilous arena, helps to define the core principles of realism, which are statism, which defines the idea of the state as the legitimate representative of the collective will of the people and self-help, which is seen as the principle of action in an anarchical international system where there is no world government. For the realists, each state actor is responsible for ensuring their own welfare and survival. These three Ss: statism, survival, and self-help are concepts that all realists, regardless of their persuasions, consider the basic and inescapable logic of international relations. This paper is a discourse of these principles. Adopting an analytical approach and relying primarily on secondary sources, the paper argues that the state itself constitutes a moral force, as its existence makes possible the emergence of an ethical political community within the domestic sphere. The findings further suggest that the twenty-first century, and indeed the centuries to come, are likely to remain the realist’s centuries, given the realist conviction that words can function as instruments of power and that internationalist ideas represent a continuation of statism by other means.