The Realist Versus Liberalist Debate - 1432 Words

Studying the world â€Å"as it is† or â€Å"as it should be† is one of the pre-eminent questions in the field of IR theories. After all, this question could be seen as a different way of formulating the Realist versus Liberalist debate, or the â€Å"First Great Debate† in IR theory. If we look at history, as Dr. Hirst explained in one of her lectures, Liberalism, or Idealism as some may call it, was the founding theory in IR. It offered an optimistic view of the world inherited from enlightment philosophers such as John Locke and Immanuel Kant. Liberalism is based on the belief that nation states will end up cooperating and that there will be peace amongst them. On the other hand, Realism, inspired by the works of Machiavelli and Hobbes, offer a†¦show more content†¦The Second World War is actually the reason why today, Realism, a theory that focuses on the world â€Å"as it is†, dominates in the field. Its domination started at the end of the Sec ond World War and increased during the Cold War as Stephen Walt explained in â€Å"International Relations: One World, Many Theories,† . The pessimistic vision of the world portrayed by Realism dominated during the Cold War for more or less obvious reasons such as the fact that the world was bi-polar with the Communist bloc on one side and the Capitalist bloc on the other and people feared the possibility of a nuclear war just a few years after the end of WWII. It was therefore understandable that people tended to be more pessimistic. So, based on this assumption, we could think that whether we study the world â€Å"as it is† or the world â€Å"as it should be† fully depends on the geo-political context in which we live in, but also on how we approach these events. For instance, our political world in 2017 has been dominated by events such as Brexit, the election of Donald Trump or even North Korea’s nuclear program. Now, I personally find these events a s being negative and therefore would tend to go towards Realism in order to understand how we got here and try to make our future better. However, I also acknowledge that some people would see those events as positive and would tend to be more optimistic about the future and start thinking about the for the future. It is a world â€Å"as itShow MoreRelatedFree Trade And Its Effects On The Prosperity Of Countries1744 Words   |  7 Pagesas a helpful tool to increase the prosperity of not only individual countries, but also the global economy as a whole. Through substantial research and application of realist and liberalist theories, both sides of the spectrum will be presented along with supporting evidence in order to better understand the intensity of the debate over free trade and my take on this issue. The sequence of this paper will be simply organized into the pros then cons of free trade, followed by my regard to its effectivenessRead MoreImportance And Depth Of Internation al Relations1858 Words   |  8 Pagesneutral throughout the war the Athenians were fighting. The Melians still wanted to remain neutral but the Athenians thought it would make them look weak in the eyes of other nations. Many of the ideas presented in this text are similar to many current debates today and it reflects on how a nation can have a need for power and what nations will do to achieve that power. Moving toward current international relations we first need to understand that countries are in groups of nation-states or states. InRead MoreImpact Of The World Trade Organization ( Wto ) On The Environment Essay5898 Words   |  24 Pagesdiscipline ? international trade law runs counter to that construct and in significant ways acts to undermine it.?[footnoteRef:33] [29: This marks a progression from the situation in 1971, when the Soci?t? Fran?aise de Droit International held a debate on whether international economic law was even a part of international law at the Colloque D?Orleans, Aspects du Droit International Economique (Editions Pedone, Paris 1972).] [30: Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of Wealth of Nations