Structural Realism / Neo-Realism
and Brief General Overview of World
News
Par
Benjamin MWADI MAKENGO
What to remenber from structuralism?
• Structuralism cuts out any set of the Real in a multiplicity of
discrete elements destined to combine.
• The prior operation of structuralism consists of a "division
of units": phonemes of Roman Jakobson, members of a
family at Lévi-Strauss, chain of signifiers at Lacan, colored
squares at Piet Mondrian, notes of a series at Arnold
Schoenberg. Once cut, these units are justiciable of three
axioms namely:
• Relation ;
• Position ;
• Permutation.
THE MAJOR PROPONENTS
Kenneth WALTZ 1924-2013
John MEARSHIMEIR 1947-
« Man, the State and War (1959) »
« Theory of international politics (1979) »
« The tragedy of great power politics (2001) »
THE BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF STRUCTURAL
REALISM/NEOREALISM
Structuralism
Relation
Position
Permutation
Structural realism
Organization (that is to say anarchy)
Differentiation (that is, function identity)
Distribution (ie power concentration)
Who is the key player in international
relations?
What is the unit to "cut": the statesman
or the system of states?
CONT..
Cont..
• International Structure is the architecture of
International Relations (Deductive) ;
• States are the major actors (Unitary and Rational
actors) ;
• The central problem in international relations is the
condition of anarchy, which means the lack of a
central sovereign authority at the global level to
regulate relations between states ;
• The primary concern of all states is survival (Fear,
Suspicion, Distrust, Self help, Deffensive (security)
and Offensive (powerfull) realism.
(Security dilemma, Hegemony, Balance of power,
Buckpassing, Bandwagoning)
AFRICA (Great Lakes Region) and ASIA (Middle East)
• Are democratic countries promote war?
Counterbalancing Coalition
Long-Cycle theory
Power-Transition theory
Selective Bibliography
• B. Badie, L’impuissance de la puissance, Paris, Fayard, 2005.
• Cl. Lévi-Strauss, L’homme nu, Paris, Plon, 1971.
• H. Morgenthau, Politics among Nations, New York, Knopf,
1948.
• K. Waltz, « The stability in a bi-polar world », Realism and
International Politics, New York, Londres, Routledge, 2007.
• K. Waltz, Theory of International Politics, New York, Mac Graw
Hill, 1979.
• Th. Hobbes, Léviathan, chap. 11, Paris, Gallimard (Folio),
2000.