Answer to Question #234553 in Political Science for Sinono

Question

According to realist theory, international relations is a self-help system as the strong do what they please and the weak do what they must. Make a case for and against this assumption

Answer 1

The Realist school of thought in International Relations has claimed both Thucydides and Thomas Hobbes as two of their intellectual forefathers and in doing so has suggested that the core beliefs and views of these two political thinkers can be classified as Realism.

It is therefore true that both political thinkers pick up on the realist view of the international system as a value- and moral-free place of anarchy, where states live under a constant fear of attack or betrayal by others and thus are facing a Security Dilemma.

However, Hobbes opposes the view that under such conditions it is the strong who determine the order of the international system. According to his theory of the ‘State of Nature’, every man is equal and thus “the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination with others that are in the same danger with himself.