Theory of International Politics: Limitations of Political Realism

Rajesh M. Basrur

India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 1985, vol. 41, issue 2, 220-235

Abstract: In the increasingly uneasy world of today, when the notion of a “balance of terror†no longer seems a jaded and unlikely description of the human condition, the concerned thinker, fearful of the future, must pause to reconsider the relevance of the dominant mode of thought in international retations. This paper seeks to examine the fundamental question whether political realism, for long the dominant mode of thought in international politics, can any longer serve as a useful guide to understanding and action in world affairs. Given the dangerous direction in which the world is all too evidently heading in the 1980s, it is necessary to enquire whether the realist outlook, however useful in the past, provides any ground for optimism regarding the future. The task is all the more important because the “future†we are concerned with involves the question of the survival of life on this planet.

Date: 1985
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indqtr:v:41:y:1985:i:2:p:220-235

DOI: 10.1177/097492848504100204

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