It’s not a fair description of all IR realism, which I think is a useful theory for illuminating certain interests of state actors. But some proponents (and the article Stephen linked confirms that Mearsheimer is one of them) seem to elevate it to a universal theory, which I don’t think it is. Frankly, Realism is the intellectual home of Russia-apologism, and while I’ll admit that Mearshimer seems to come by this honestly (in that he honestly thinks Russia is likely to respond with nukes and isn’t just a Putin fanboy) I take a rather different view of how things are likely to turn out if we keep backing Ukraine.
Realism as a school of IR thought far predates Russia-Ukraine, Wikipedia lists ~1600s as the origin of IR realism in the West but in college I was taught that the intellectual foundation originated with at least Thucydides.
It’s not a fair description of all IR realism, which I think is a useful theory for illuminating certain interests of state actors. But some proponents (and the article Stephen linked confirms that Mearsheimer is one of them) seem to elevate it to a universal theory, which I don’t think it is. Frankly, Realism is the intellectual home of Russia-apologism, and while I’ll admit that Mearshimer seems to come by this honestly (in that he honestly thinks Russia is likely to respond with nukes and isn’t just a Putin fanboy) I take a rather different view of how things are likely to turn out if we keep backing Ukraine.
Realism as a school of IR thought far predates Russia-Ukraine, Wikipedia lists ~1600s as the origin of IR realism in the West but in college I was taught that the intellectual foundation originated with at least Thucydides.