INTL 3200 Lecture 1: Realism
5 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
Idealism emphasizes international law, morality, and international organizations as key influences on international events. International system is a community of states with the potential to work together to overcome multi problems. Idealists were particularly active between wwi and wwii; this theoretical framework was held a central position in the study of ir. Sun tzu (talks about war strategies, the art of war), thucydides (the. History of the peloponnesian war), machiavelli (the prince; everyone looks out for their own self interest), hobbes (the leviathan), morgenthau (father of modern realism; from germany, but fled during wwii; wanted to explain why wwii happened; politics among nations. International relations is best understood in terms of power. The exercise of power by states toward each other is sometimes called real politik, or just power politics. Wherever you have competition, you have conflict. A framework or way of thinking; they are meant to simplify things; the fundamental goal of a theory is to simplify things.
