Why Are Revisionist States Revisionist? Reviving Classical Realism as an Approach to Understanding International Change
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Why Are Revisionist States Revisionist? Reviving Classical Realism as an Approach to Understanding International Change Sten Rynninga and Jens Ringsmoseb a
Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, Odense 5230, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected] b Danish Institute for Military Studies, Ryvangs Alle´ 1, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected]
In this article, we argue that Realism recently has eschewed big and important questions of war and peace and that revived Classical Realism can help bring Realism back on track. Modern Realists tend to assume that states are either all status quo players or all revisionists, and the result is a slippery grasp of the sources and dynamics of international change. To revive Classical Realism, we examine three dominant sets of criticism. We notably return to the classical texts of Realism to show that the classics were in fact not reductionist: they did not reduce either systemic or national phenomena (third and second image theory) to human nature (first image). Classical Realists understood the many intricate and delicate connections between these levels, and it is modern era Realists who are reductionists because they reduce explanations to systemic phenomena. We show how Classical Realism can respond in strength to its critics and ask the kind of research questions that again will advance our understanding of international change. International Politics (2008) 45, 19–39. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ip.8800217 Keywords: Classical Realism; structural realism; revisionism and the status quo; international change; war and peace
Introduction The solidity of the international status quo and concomitantly the strength of revisionism is a major concern to the theory of Realism because it purports to account for big questions of war and peace.1 By logical implication, the location, timing, and strength of challenges to the current world order should be a central issue to all Realists. It is odd, therefore, to observe that many contemporary Realists eschew these big and important issues: some simply assume that the problem is not there; others argue that the problem of revisionism is so prevalent that we are better off studying the status quo. We
Sten Rynning and Jens Ringsmose Why Are Revisionist States Revisionist?
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are, crudely speaking, dealing with Defensive Realists who assume that all states are status quo players (Waltz, 1979), and Offensive Realists who assume that all states are revisionists (Mearsheimer, 2001). These Realist perspectives essentially fail to elaborate on the sources of change, which were examined by Classical Realism, and which must be investigated if we are to understand the durability of the Western principles that won the Cold War and also the way in which powerful actors are likely to contest these principles. In short, Classical Realism contains conceptual tools that make it the most promising member of the Realist family. In this article, we outline how Realists should go about using these tools to understand chan
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