John Mearsheimer: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001), Chapter 9

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001) by John Mearsheimer is a cornerstone of contemporary realist international relations theory, offering a provocative argument for the inevitability of conflict among great powers.

This is a continuation of the series (starting December 5) on John J. Mearsheimer's book The Τragedy of Great Power Politics. A pdf is available here.

For this next meeting, we will review Chapter 9 ("The Causes of Great Power War").

An agenda with major points will be provided on the ΖOOM screen during our discussion to guide us along.

This noteworthy book published in 2001 offers an (a) "offensive realist" theory rather than a (b) "liberal-institutionalist" theory of international relations.

Offensive realism is a theory of international relations that states that states are motivated by self-interest, power maximization, and fear of others.

It is a neorealist theory that was developed by political scholar John Mearsheimer as a response to defensive realism.

Mearsheimer contends that his offensive realist theory can better explain the major events in international relations between 1792 and the 21st century, while providing some predictive value about future events, such as:

Can China rise peacefully? "No," according to John Mearsheimer, since China will seek to be a regional hegemony throughout Asia, in order to assure itself of territorial and regional security.

Meanwhile, the United States with its approximately one hundred thousand troops in East Αsia and recent security agreement with India will prevent the rise of China as regional challenger.

It's a tragedy, because the quest by great powers for security is an inescapable, zero-sum game.

The discussion itself will be oriented around the following features of offensive realism:

• Anarchic international system: The international system is anarchic, and states can never be certain about other states' intentions.
• Power maximization: States are power-maximizing revisionists that seek to dominate the international system.
• Survival: Survival is the primary goal of great powers.
• Zero-sum game: International politics is a zero-sum game, where the only thing that matters is winning more or losing less than other states.
• Offensive realism differs from defensive realism. Defensive realism holds that conquest is costly and the international system usually encourages moderation.

Offensive realists argue that defensive realists exaggerate the restraint of the international system on major states.

About the Author:

John J. Mearsheimer (1947–) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of political thought.

He is a Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago where he has taught since 1982. He graduated from West Point in 1970 and then served five years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.

He has also been a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, Harvard University's Center for International Affairs, and the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Mearsheimer's works are widely read and debated by 21st-century students of international relations. He has been described as the most influential realist thinker of his generation.

A 2017 survey of US international relations faculty ranks him third among "scholars whose work has had the greatest influence on the field of IR in the past 20 years."

He has published 7 books and numerous articles in academic journals like International Security. He also frequently publishes in popular outlets like Foreign Affairs, the Economist, the London Review of Books, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.