Week 6

Basic Theories: Realism

Session 11: Classical Realism

Required readings:

  • Morgenthau, Hans J. “World Politics in the Mid-Twentieth Century.” The Review of Politics 10, no.2 (1948): 154-73.

Recommended reagins:

  • Morgenthau, Hans J. “Six Principles of Political Realism.” Excerpted from Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 7th ed. (rev.). Boston: McGraw Hill, [1949] (2006).
Erastus Salisbury Field, Pharaoh’s Army Marching, c. 1865/1880. Oil on canvas, 89 × 116.8 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Public domain.

Session 12: Neorealism and Structural Realism

Required readings:

  • Waltz, Kenneth N. “Structural Realism after the Cold War.” International Security 25, no.1 (2000): 5-41.

Recommended readings:

  • Mearsheimer, John. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York: Norton, 2001. Read chapters 1, 2, 9, and 10.
  • Waltz, Kenneth N. “Political Structures” and “Anarchic Orders and Balances of Power.” These chapters appear as chs.5-6 in Theory of International Politics and as chs. 4-5 in Neorealism and Its Critics.
  • Kirshner, Jonathan. “The Economic Sins of Modern IR Theory and the Classical Realist Alternative.” World Politics 67, no. 1 (2015): 155-179.