GVPT 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Offensive Realism, Human Nature

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Government and Politics
• Course: GVPT 200
• Professor: Calvert Jones

Document Summary

Overall goal of each state is to maximize its world power. Three features that cause states to fear one another. The absence of a central authority that sits above states and can protect them from each other. The fact that states always have some offensive military capability. The fact that states can never be certain about other states intentions. Tragic because always seeking to dominate each other. Multipolar systems are more war prone than bipolar systems. Multipolar with powerful states (potential hegemons) are the most dangerous systems. Consider states to be the main actors in international politics. Emphasize that the internal characteristics of states vary considerably and that these differences have profound effects on state behavior. Believe that calculations about power matter little for explaining the behavior of good states. High levels of economic interdependence among states make them unlikely to fight each other. Democracies do not go to war against other democracies.