Summary of Political Realism
According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Political realism is defined as “a theory of
political philosophy that aempts to explain, model, and prescribe political relations. It takes as
its assumption that power is (or ought to be) the primary end of political action, whether in the
domestic or international arena. In the domestic arena, the theory asserts that politicians do, or
should, strive to maximize their power, whilst on the international stage, nation states are seen
as the primary agents that maximize, or ought to maximize, their power. The theory is therefore
to be examined as either a prescription of what ought to be the case, that is, nations and
politicians ought to pursue power or their own interests, or as a description of the ruling state
of a’airs-that nations and politicians only pursue (and perhaps only can pursue) power or self–
interest”(hp://www.iep.utm.edu/polreal/).
Political Realism is of the views, that international relations a primarily a fight of self-interested,
sovereign states, who are engaged in a game of power politics inside a perpetual state of anarchy.
According to this train of thought, the International system is an environment that lacks moral
and value. The state is looked at as a logical and unitary actor who is always in a continuous
battle with other states involve in the system, because of the nonexistence of an overarching
universal government. Base on its pessimistic understanding of human behavior, if security was
to be attained in the International system, then there must be a balance of power between the
most powerful states in the organization.
