Liberalism Essay

857 Words4 Pages
(1) What are the distinguishing characteristics of the three primary approaches to international relations- Realism, Liberalism and Constructivism? The study of international relations and its influence on the international community can be best understood by analyzing realism, liberalism, and constructivism. Throughout history, these three approaches have played a crucial role in explaining us the major causes of some devastating wars and politics in the history of mankind. In the following below, the distinguishing characteristics of realism, liberalism, and constructivism will be explained vividly. Realism is the view that world politics is driven my competitive self-interest. Therefore, relists believe that the decisive dynamic among countries is struggle for power in an effort by each to improve its military security and economic welfare in competition with other countries. Realists believe that nation-states are unitary and geographically-based actors in an anarchic international system with no authority above capable of regulating interactions between states, rather than IGOs, NGOs, or MNCs are the primary actors in international affairs. Thus states, as the highest order, are in competition with one another. As such a state acts as a rational autonomous actor in pursuit of its own self-interest with a primary goal to maintain and ensure its own sovereignty and survival. Realism holds that in pursuit of its interests, states will attempt to amass resources, and that relations between states are determined by relative levels of power. That level of power is in turn determined by the state’s military and economic capabilities. Some offensive realists believe that states are inherently aggressive, that territorial expansion is constrained only by opposing powers, while defensive realists believe that
Open Document