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 survival. This example can also be applied to the principle of self-help. As you can see, North Korea’s nuclear program is also aimed at being able to defend itself without the help from other states, namely its ally China. It believed that to ensure the survival of the state, the leader must not rely on other states for its security and view the intentions of other states with scepticism and that they are not to be trusted. All these moves have their roots in the realist tradition.  

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  Secondly, theories of realist tradition that provides explanations on why conflicts and wars occur in the international realm remains as one of the most powerful up till today. According to Waltz, the anarchy in international politics leaves the states no room but to maximise its power by boosting their military capability to ensure its security and survival (Waltz, 1979, 111). However by doing so it gave rise to the what John Herz famously called as the ‘security dilemma’ (Baylis & Rengger, 1992, 9), which exist ‘when the military preparations of one state create an irresolvable uncertainty in mind ...

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