DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

FOURAH BAY COLLEGE

UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE

Module: Introduction to International Relations (Pols 411)

First Semester, 2008

Instructor (Lecturer): Ms. Lena Thompson

Name: Josephus J. Ellie

Final Year, History and Politics

Essay Topic: “Critically Evaluate Post War Realist Explanation of International Politics with Particular Reference to Power”

Introduction

The tradition of political realism – realpolitik, power politics – has a long history that is typically traced back to the great Greek historian Thucydides in the fifth century BC. Although dominant attitudes towards realism have varied, realist arguments and orientations have been central to the Western theory and practice of international relations. “In particular, “modern” international society, whether dated from the era of Machiavelli at the turn of the sixteenth century or that of Hobbes in the mid-seventeenth century, has been closely linked to realist balance of power politics. The link between realism and international theory is especially strong in the twentieth century. International relations first emerged as an academic discipline before and immediately after World War I, largely in reaction against realist balance of power politics. The discipline was then reshaped immediately before and after World War II by self-identified realists such as E. H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau. Prominent scholar-practitioners, such as George Kennan and Henry Kissinger, have called themselves realists. For most of the post-World War II era realism has been the dominant paradigm in the Anglo-American study of international relations”[1]. Even in our post-Cold War era of globalization, realist theories, although much less dominant, still provide a context and motivation for many of the most important theoretical