Understanding International Politics | Realism and Idealism theory

UNDERSTANDING
INTERNATIONAL
POLITICS

Understanding international politics 1
Application of realism and idealism theory to the study of international relations
Both realism and Idealism are two competing traditional theories applied to the study
of international relations. The realism theory esteems global politics as a struggle for power
among nations. This approach signifies the efforts of a nation to utilise national power for
safeguarding goals of the national interest. On the other side, idealism theory enhances the
course of international relations by eradicating inequality, war, hunger, tyranny supervision,
force and violence from the global relations. This theory admits the possibility of forming a
world free from these troubles by relying upon science, motive and education.
The realism theory is also identified as political realism. The realism theory follows a
power sight of international relations. This theory states politics as a fight for power and
pursues to explicate through factors like security, power and national interest. The power is
described as a psychological association in which an individual can regulate the behaviour of
another individual. A political actor is one who constantly pursues to safeguard one’s
interests as described in terms of power. The political realism further esteems farsightedness
as a leader in politics. The realism in international relations is greatly focused on realist
norms of human behaviour (Rush, 2018). This theory believes that human behaviour is
generally associated with concerns about ego and discrete passions and desires along with the
existence of wicked in human beings. It is believed that agreed conditions of the world,
humans themselves are left to do what they can then it will result in carrying out evil actions
in contradiction of others. The realism theory majorly focuses on egoistic desires and
disastrous prevalence of evil in political actions. As the passions are enduring, the conflict is
foreseeable. The state is the most significant factor in international relations. These are the
dominated one. Political realism offers the clue that international relations are fundamentally
conflictual. According to realism theory, the international system creates conflict and tension.
The reason behind is the negative sight of human nature. It has to do more with the erection
of the international system (Wohlforth & Zubok, 2017). The reason behind viewing the
system as one by the realists that lead to the struggle has to do with the idea of anarchy. The
world has become an anarchical system. It shows that there is no predominant power
controlling of the behaviour of the actors within the state system. The realistic theory is
moreover a ‘self-help system’ where a country searching for discovery generally leave its
present and latent advisories insecure (Villanueva, 2017). A country persisting for complete
safety leaves all others in the complete insecure system. It offers an influential inducement
for arms races and other types of unreceptive interactions. When it is about international