Chapter 03

Classical Realism

• Neorealism is a parody of science: it is overly parsimonious, unfalsifiable and does not adequately theorize international politics and key concepts such as polarity and power. The decline of neorealism since the end of the Cold War has resulted in renewed interest in classical realist thinkers.

• Classical realists, such as Thucydides, Machiavelli, Von Clausewitz and Hans Morgenthau, have been interested in questions of order, justice and change at domestic, regional and international levels across 2500 years. They have a holistic understanding of politics that recognizes the close relationship of the domestic and the international, and the role of ethics and community. They recognize that communal bonds are fragile and they regard history as cyclical.

• This chapter explores the work of Thucydides and Hans Morgenthau. Their writings have many similarities, especially in their appreciation of the importance of community, change and the role of theory, that arise from their shared tragic vision of world politics.

• Classical realists do not make a strong distinction between the domestic world and the anarchical realm of world politics as Waltz, for example, does. They see all politics as an expression of the same human drives and domestic and international communities as characterized by similar processes.

• Thucydides sees the cohesiveness of community as central in maintenance of order and restraint in international relations as in domestic politics. Morgenthau too recognized the role of common standards of ‘culture and politeness’ in shaping the variation of order both in international and domestic relations.

• On balance of power, Thucydides appreciated the importance of alliances but, against neorealists, did not see them as effective deterrents of war but rather as potential provokers of conflict. Morgenthau saw balance of power as a ubiquitous social phenomena but recognized that it has contradictory implications in international relations depending on the historical context. Order ultimately rests on strength of community for classical realists.

• Contemporary realists emphasize interests not justice as the priority of state actors but classical realists emphasise the role of justice as the foundation of community. Thucydides’ writing emphasised the tensions between but also the mutually constitutive relationship of interest and justice. Morgenthau’s understanding of interest and justice was influenced by his distinction between theory and practice and his conceptualisation of power: the strategies of a leader must take into account the intangible qualities of influence, such as the role of ethics and justice.

• For classical realists justice is important for two reasons: because it is the key to influence how others understand and respond to you and because it provides a conceptual framework on which actors construct their interests.

• Change, for neorealists, takes place when the number of poles changes in the international system. For classical realists, change is perceived more widely: it is associated with modernization, which brings about shifts in identities and discourses, and hence conceptions of security. Thucydides narrated how wealth brings about increasing tendencies towards unilateral acquisition and use of force. Morgenthau emphasised the process of transference of private impulses onto the state through modernisation.

• In restoring order following wars both Thucydides and Morgenthau looked for a combination of old and new in values and in government. This was in order to accommodate changes while limiting their destructive potential. In relations between states, Thucydides advocated the turn to more proportional and restrained forms of hēgemonia and defence of internal order through means such as religion. Morgenthau noted the crusading moral forces in the Soviet Union and US, pointing out that deterrence in such context would not be enough but rather restraint was needed by leaders..

• Thucydides emphasised the context dependence of foreign policy actions. Morgenthau also denied general laws and predictions. Theory, for classical Greeks was associated with interpretive description of events and processes. Morgenthau develops theoretical frameworks to allow decision-makers to deal with individual problems.

• Case study. From a classical realist perspective the Iraq War can be seen as a tragedy in the Greek sense. Central theme of this notion is that those who do not act within the community and justice formulate their interests through passion and hope rather than through reason and calculation.

• Case study continued. At the end of the Cold War the US moved towards unilateralism. Intoxication with power and contempt for allies, led Bush Administration to hubris. This can be seen in the case of Iraq.

• Case study continued. Seeking to dispose of Saddam Hussein, the US administration assumed Iraqis would welcome liberators and that other countries would bandwagon with their cause. These judgements were made without adequate consultation with experts in the region. Inadequately planned occupation alienated many Iraqis. The failure of the Iraq operation reminds us that great powers are often their own worst enemy.

• The notion of tragedy captures the contradiction between the abilities of man and his propensity to destroy with violence what has been achieved. Looking for conditions of stable orders classical realists were pessimistic of the ability of the powerful to exercise self-restraint. Key theme of classical realism is that it offers prudence as an antidote to hubris.

Print this page

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 03.

Chapter 03

Classical Realism