Neorealism Theory

3508 Words15 Pages
Ever since the start of the human civilization, the world has never been in peace. Conflict has always been the most crucial element that made up history. Often, history repeats itself: genocides, mass killings, wars, and even a global scale of war and cross-continental wars. Positive and negative thinking, confusions, behaviors, and circumstances, all can lead to these serious consequences. Since then, many scholars, even from the earliest civilization till now, began to develop theory to describe things that happen in the world or international issues. Theories like the world is made up of bad things and human has a bad instinct value, are categorized as Realism. While, theories that state the world is full of good things and humans keep…show more content…
In reality, Realism have the significantly affect over the structure of International system when it seeks to explain outcomes in international politics. Neorealism (structural realism) theory is counted as one among the influential contemporary approach in international relation. Neorealism was departed sharply from the Hans Morgenthau writing about classical realism theory in showing no interest in the ethic of statecraft (security and state survival) or the moral dilemmas of foreign policy (Robert Jakson and Georg Sorensen, 2013). Then, the theory was first associated with Kenneth Waltz’s book in 1979 “Theory of International Politic”. Neorealism analyses how the decentralized and anarchical structure of the state system, in particular the relative distribution of power of state which is the central focus. In fact, there are six fundamental of neorealist concept: anarchy, structure, capability, distribution of power, polarity, and national…show more content…
Second, the structure in the international system composed like units, even large or small, states have to perform as similar set of government functions such as national defense that have the centralized legitimate authority to use force to look after themselves (Robert Jakson and Georg Sorensen, 2013). Third the concept of capability, where states feel insecure when there is no one command or any obliged to obey. So each state needs to be capable or finding the power for itself, what Waltz called it as relative capabilities. Capabilities are the instrument for state to enhance or ensure its own survival, which is determined by five criteria; natural resource, military and technological capacity, its location (demographic) and economic condition. Since different state achieves a different level of capability within the international system so each state must be concern much about other state future intention. Then, it will affect the trust between states or become a security dilemma. Fourth, the distribution of power; because state was in the competition for security and interest then state start to limit the cooperation among state through the fear of the relative gain made by another
Open Document