 Realists see the world as it is  Basic assumptions of realism  Groupism; group cohesion to survive, nation state and nationalism, anarchic social settings  Egoism; self-interest, corrupted human nature  Power-centrism: inequalities of power, power is used to coerce (incentives, deterrent threats and punishments)

 Thucydides, Machiavelli, E.H. Carr, H. Morgenthau, K. Waltz  Realist foreign Policy- Power driven, most powerful groups/actors

 Where the power is?  What the group interest are?  Power relationships in clashing interest!  Specific realist theories: Balance of power, security dilemma, anarchy

 Classical realism: H. Morhentahu, T. Hobbes, Machivelli  draw pessimistic view about human being which is mainly described as corrupted and immoral

 Defensive realism: Jack Snyder  had little interest for military conquest, they believe that it is costly to manage all territorial conquest because expansion is over expanding and costly  difficulty of conquest, state’s capacity to strike back, nuclear weapons  finding way to defend yourself without threatening others-be defensive

 Offensive realism: J. Marsheimer  based on the assumption of the seeking for survival of states status quo against revisionist states such as Hitler Germany.  It is not clear that when one states will desire to dominate rest of the world so it is important to be offensive and attack first to take advantage (pre-emptive strike)  Uncertainty increases insecurity in anarchic environment-be powerful to survive

 Neo-realism: two assumptions  anarchic international system  states in international system concern about survival  Beyond state-centric world view, K. Waltz introduce third image (systemic level of analysis within inherently anarchic international system)

 Neoclassical realism:  Combination of classical realism and neo- realism  Claims that changes and behaviors of states in the international system can be explained by systemic variables

 Balance of power: alliances  Balance of threat: states will balance against threat  Hegemonic stability theory: powerful state dominate to whole international system to end anarchy by establishing hierarchy

 Power transition theory: dominant state seeks to remain in power but it is challenged by other states when they become stronger (war is likely/preventive war to stop threats)

 During 1900s diplomats use balance of power, security dilemma and defensive realism to analyze specific period or situation  George Kennan, the US ambassador to Soviet Union wrote memoranda to inform Washington to adopt “containment policy” in He describes Soviet Union as a threat to global balance of power and U.S.

 1970s Nixon and Kissinger-reorientation U.S foreign policy  decline of U.S and rise of Soviet Union, Asia and European countries (alliance, changing, balance of power, power transition theory), main argument is U.S spend time and resources to contain Soviet Union and rivals take advantage of this (China) and they propose ‘détente’