Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Various International Relations Topics

A1. Realists argue that because the world system is characterized by anarchy (i.e., the absence of a supranational power that can coerce states' behavior) the collective security arrangements of international institutions are destined to fail. Even when states are joined in cooperative efforts such as the United Nations, realists argue, each state's primary concern remains its own security as a sovereign nation. The mistrust among states is endemic and no arrangements that look to the greater good of all nations can hope to have any great effect. No individual state, they claim, will set aside this concern for long -- even when an international organization is operating toward a greater good that will, in the end, serve individual states' interests because it will serve everyone's interests.

What Carr and other realists failed to recognize was that Wilson and others who favored the League of Nations and other such arrangements were responding to imminent changes in the world system. Speed of communications and transportation were improving rapidly and broader options were developing in terms of the export and import of goods. Security of markets and sources of raw materials had, as the British Empire had demonstrated, become of enormous importance to manufacturing nations. Those who favored collective approaches to security foresaw the importance of cooperation in a world that was increasingly interdependent in ecological, economic, and security terms.

The problem with realist approaches to international relations is that the focus is severely limited. While there are certainly instances in which realist analysis is helpful, for the most part the theory ignores the changes in the system that have evolved in the twentieth century. The simple fact that few nations now feed themselves exclusively (either importing or exporting, or both) demonstrates the extent to which interdependence has evolved. The Cold War and its bip...

Page 1 of 9 Next >

More on Various International Relations Topics...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Various International Relations Topics. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:46, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682443.html