Realism

The international relations tradition explaining state behavior chiefly through power, security, and self-help under anarchy. Kenneth Waltz's structural realism (1979) derives states' focus on relative power and the balance of power from the single premise that no central authority stands above states. John Mearsheimer's offensive realism sharpens this into the claim that great powers actively seek to maximize relative power, and applies the framework to argue NATO's post-Cold War expansion created the security threat that produced Russian behavior in 2008, 2014, and 2022 — a serious scholarly position this course states fairly and scores against evidence rather than dismissing by association with its use as a Kremlin talking point.

Learn about this term

Related Terms