Session 12: Offensive Realism!

The 1948 Arab-Israeli war can be cited as the practical implication offensive realism theory, which implies that for a state to survive, it has to engage in military conflicts. For the young Jewish nation to survive in a land surrounded by hostile Arab states, the foremost priority of the state of Israel was to build up military capacity. To withstand against combined forces of Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, Israeli officials took measures to strengthen their armed forces. 

                The theory also argues regarding the rationality of the states.  Being rational from an entity’s perspective is subjective. For Israel, the rational to align it with great power such as United States might to be to take a defensive stance. On the other hand, from Arabs’ viewpoint, Israel’s actions are manifestations of demonstrating regional hegemony.  

                The structure of the system, as noticed by the theorists, is to be blamed on the competition amongst states to gain power. Nearly half of the world, mostly Western world support Israel while the other half, mostly Muslim and Arab states hold their support for Arabs particularly for Palestinians. The influence of international political actors can be widely seen in the Arab-Israeli conflict through constant interventions by powers such as Great Britain and United States of America e.g. Camp David Accords in 1990s.

                Even though, offensive realism theory can be utilized to analyze conflicts across the globe but it does not always hold true. There could be other factors as well which contribute to hostile behavior between states. Disagreement over resource allocations, ideological differences, ethnic and religious hatred etc. can significantly contribute to the propagation of wars.