Session 12 - What Peace; Only Power

John Mearsheimer in his essay "The Tragedy of Great Power Politics" talks about offensive realism and what states do to survive. he tries to provide evidence of his assumptions by fist defining what he means by power, the sources of power (with the major source being land) and then looking at the great powers in history and focusing on how they acted and why they acted so in terms of power, wealth and war. According to Mearsheimer, the great powers focus on three main objectives: To become a regional hegemony, to gain  the maximum wealth and to gain nuclear superiority. In regards to the first objective, Mearsheimer believes that although all states are trying to increase their power, no state shall become a global hegemon because states will try and prevent another state from becoming a global hegemon. In regards to the second objective, states seek to increase their wealth because it indicates not only a string economy but also the strength of the state including military strength. And lastly in regards to the third objective, states seek nuclear superiority so that they can destroy their enemies in retaliation if they are losing. but Mearsheimer says that states will try to gain superiority over their nuclear rivals. Furthermore, Mearsheimer also believes that that the war is less likely to happen in a bi-polar world rather than a multi-polar world.

There are several questions that come up while going through Mearsheimer's essay. First of all, Mearsheimer seems to lace a lot of emphasis on how power is derives from land. But in today's world how much of an indicator is land of power? Israel for example may be a small country with little land but due to technological advancements can be said to a powerful state. There are several other examples in the world of small states being larger then quite a lot of larger states because of technological advancements. Furthermore, just how important is the conquest of land? In the recent years any war that has been fought has not been over land, rather resources (other than a few exemptions and even in the exemptions there are exemptions). Moving on in today's world we can say that there is a global hegemon (the US). And yes it does interfere a lot in international politics. So in the recent years China is on its way to becoming a regional hegemon (if it hasn't become one already). It is gaining wealth/economic power, has increased its sending on its military, is a large country (so lots of land) and is also developing a nuclear power. So in the next few years US or some other country will try and wage a war against China to stop it from becoming a regional/global hegemon. Mearsheimer seems to believe this will happen. But if so, this will mean the breakout of a new world war.

So all states are after power to survive, but will try and stop other states from getting power, which in turn leads to fighting and war, which in turn states trying to get more power and stopping other from gaining as much power, which leads to war which leads to...... there you have it, the answer to why there can never be any peace by Mearsheimer.