What are the major strength and weakness of realist tradition?

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What are the major strength and weakness of realist tradition?

Theories on international relations of realist tradition were accepted by most as the dominant way explaining global events for the later part of the last century. In recent years realist tradition had come under increasing criticism, as it was not able to explain recent global events. However it still offers compelling insights on how the states conduct themselves in the world. Therefore, we are going to look at the major strength and weakness of the realist tradition.

Let us start from its strengths. Firstly, the three core assumptions that form the basis of the theories of realist tradition namely Statism, Survival, Self-help (Dunne & Schmidt, 2001, 150-155) were applicable in most of the situation in international politics. States are still currently viewed as the main actors in world politics although there are increasing influence from non-states actors too. The notion of survival is also evident as states tried to maximise their power to at least ensure their survival. A very good example is North Korea, which is maximising its power by restarting its nuclear program to counter what it deemed as threats from America to it