Political Realism

The theory of international relations holding that states are the primary actors in a self-help anarchic system, that state behavior is driven by the pursuit of power and national interest, and that moral norms cannot constrain interstate relations.

Against idealism: E.H. Carr's Twenty Years' Crisis: Wilsonian idealism ignored the role of power in international affairs. Morgenthau's classical realism: politics is governed by objective laws rooted in human nature; the concept of national interest defined in terms of power is the guiding star of statecraft. Waltz's structural realism: the cause of war is not human nature but the structure of the international system — anarchy (no overarching authority) forces states into self-help security competition. The dominant paradigm in IR theory.