John Mearsheimer in The Tragedy of Great Power Politics puts forth what he believes to be a pessimistic yet pragmatic approach power politics entail. That approach or what can be called a theory is offensive realism. Mearsheimer takes into account the liberal arguments as well as the perspective of defensive realism, and shows how both fall short of the ‘reality’ of the international system.
What I found particularly interesting was his view of the democratic peace theory. The idea that the internal structure or type of state is more likely to go to war or not, is a very optimistic conclusion to make. It’s so optimistic that the chances of it manifesting are a few to none. He uses the ongoing debate of China’s rise to support his claim. For Mearsheimer “whether China is democratic and deeply enmeshed in the global economy or autocratic and autarkic will have little effect on it’s behavior.” This is because all states whether they’re ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as labelled by the liberal school of thought; are all security seeking. And in order to attain this security they need to have higher relative gains than the other states around them and eventually the most safest a state can be is through it seizing hegemony.
The importance of hegemony for Mearsheimer is also highlighted through his insistence that great powers as well as smaller powers are determined by the one with the greatest capabilities. And the capability is based on their relative military capabilities. However in this day and age shouldn’t one of the fundamental capabilities on par with military capability include power over information?
In modern state system, a country with a strong military tendencies, like America, can pursue its hegemonic goals only if she has an upper hand over information. Although control over information is one of the main tenets for dominance in modern world, but without military capabilities, it will be difficult for a state to be a decision making entity. However, this control over information, when coupled with strong military abilities have potential to make a state an important player in international arena.
ReplyDeleteGood post and to clarify my comment from your Week 13 post - I thought your Week 13 post was substantively better than you Week 11 post, while I think this post (Week 12) is slightly better than your Week 13 post. None of the three are, of course, your best work, but you raise really good points in this post.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, I like that you picked up on the fact that Mearsheimer couldn't care less if China is democratic because that will not change its behavior since it - like all nations - aim to maximize power. Even if China transitions to democracy, it will still attempt to gain regional hegemony if at all possible.
This issue of information and control over it is an interesting one as well and is increasingly important in the Internet Age.