Classical Realism is not ‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

Author:

Kirshner Jonathan1

Affiliation:

1. Political Science Faculty, Boston College , Boston , MA , USA

Abstract

Abstract In their assessments of An Unwritten Future: Realism and Uncertainty in World Politics, two distinguished scholars of World Politics engage in a spirited contestation about the role of classical realism in International Relations (IR) theory. Richard Ned Lebow aspires to defend the paradigm from what he suggests are barbarians at the gate. In this response I offer rejoinders to his treatment of E. H. Carr and Robert Gilpin, and his characterization of the ways in which we each engage Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War as an inspirational text. Stephen Krasner raises a number of thoughtful and savvy constructive criticisms of An Unwritten Future, some of which ring true. Yet he and I continue to markedly disagree about the importance of analytical uncertainty for understanding IR, and also with regard to the role of history in explaining behavior in world politics. And in an otherwise sophisticated critique, Krasner ultimately reduces classical realism to a caricature. In my response I clarify why in fact it is his preferred approach, structural realism, which, on its own, is irretrievably indeterminate and leaves scholars needing much more that its minimalist disposition can possibly hope to provide. I conclude with a short elaboration of why classical realism offers a more productive way forward.

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Reference25 articles.

1. Adeney, Bernard T. 1988. Just War, Political Realism, and Faith. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.

2. Aron, Raymond. 1948/1938. Introduction to the Philosophy of History: An Essay on the Limits of Historical Objectivity. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.

3. Aron, Raymond. 1990/1983. Memoirs: Fifty Years of Political Reflection. New York: Holmes & Meier.

4. Ashley, Richard K. 1984. “The Poverty of Neorealism.” International Organization 38 (2): 225–86. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020818300026709.

5. Cox, Robert W. 1985. “Realism, Positivism and Historicism.” In Reprinted in Robert W. Cox with Timothy Sinclair, Approaches to World Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996.

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