At the midst of misery after the World War II, the realists challenged the idealists through presenting their own theoretical ideology. They primarily believed in the eminence of power inside the global context. Realism’s advocacy is society is anarchy, or a state without government. Thus politics uses diplomacy and interrelations to establish a peaceful interaction among the states. Realists also generally believe that power is the capability of one country to perform coercion and persuasion to other states to other countries to do what it otherwise would not do. They can also view and perceive a pattern of repetitious wars with the powerful doing what they want and the weak withstanding what they must for realists believe that power is an “end-all. Niccholo Machiavelli is one of the most famous forerunners of realism due to his principles which are evident in his book “The Prince” in which one of its points says that regulation and manipulation of power leads to success. Thus, accumulation of power has been the trend for those who believe and practice realism.
In the international arena, security among nations has been established ever since to prevent aggressions and threats from other countries. Power plays a vital role in this system and even control the system. The powerful the county possesses more security and the less powerful the country is the less security it has. An infamous example for this is the United States and Iraq. United States is evidently more powerful than Iraq, thus, it would be easy for the Americans to attack and implement their ideologies in Iraq. On the other hand, Iraq was devastated due to their lack of political power. The power bestowed upon the America made them usually get what they please without being too threatened by other nations.
In the concept of power, wealth is an important factor. The richer and the more stable the economy of the country is, the more power they gain and an example of that is China. Their economic status is prominently well established, thus, they have power over other countries and nowadays, they never acquire any threats from other countries. They maintain their status quo and power because of their economic success.
Another concept that is discussed in security in the international arena is terrorism and mass destruction weapons. A powerful country usually has their own defense against terrorism in terms of their military system and those who are not in power usually suffer from this threat. An example of that is the Philippines, because we have weak military forces; we were easily affected by terrorism before and so the United States arrived in our country to train our military troops. The 2001 bombing of Twin Towers is also a good example for terrorism, and because America is powerful they managed to recover from it and they even acquired their revenge against the terrorists.
The second factor in the global society to be discussed is power relations. A nation which established more connections towards other countries has the possibility to be more powerful and influential. A common effect of this is through trade and business transactions towards another state. An example of power relations is between Japan and United States, which are both powerful countries and they both benefit from each other. There is an existing trade of goods between the two, but they still might have the possibility of internal conflicts because both are in a competition in terms of their economic status, they still manage to maintain a good relationship towards each other to still establish a smooth-sailing political relationship.
However, power relations cannot only be evident on trade. In other cases it could be the through establishing social relationships towards other states. Former President Gloria Arroyo has created this towards other powerful nations through her constant visit abroad, thus, when our country needed funds and help other countries willing extended their help on us. One instance of that is during the Ondoy calamity, a lot of countries sympathized and helped in terms of sending their donations for us.
The last factor to be tackled is peace and order. In realism, in order for a state to be at peace and order it also needs power to fight for their country’s peace and to implement it towards their nation. During the world wars, colonized countries needed to wage wars or revolutions against their foreign colonizers for them to gain peace and independence. Asian and Latin American countries could probably had experienced it the most, tremendous amount of people suffered and died for their attainment of peace and order in their respective nations. On the other hand, peace is also a preparation for war because during in time of peace, that is also the time wherein nation maximizes their time to manage their military defense troops and war equipments.
In another instance of peace and order in international relations is the depiction of diplomacies and delegations of each country to develop social, economical and political relations. Conflicts are inevitable yet for the realists, diplomacy can lessen these problems since wars are no longer prevalent in this generation.
Therefore, from these points of view, we can claim that power and realism in the international scene are relative and subjective to interests and performance of a nation and it is the most influential too among the other approaches. Also, power and politics are very distinct everywhere due to people’s different and clashing interests. They even control the entirety of systems present in different countries.
However, we cannot fully claim that is the specific world order, since there are exceptions and variances on the status and condition of different countries. Examples of those exceptions are those countries that belong in the European Union. Realists even consider them as anomaly, yet their interaction on one another is effective. Those countries are not in war but they live harmoniously with one another and with wealth through economic integration and free trade. This union even helped other poor countries in their nearby state after the World War, and an example of that is the Ireland. Ireland has been poor and under populated, but through the help of the European Union, Ireland progressed through time by learning market and economical strategies to help establish their dying economy before. Thus, they serve as proofs that cooperation among countries to progress is still possible.
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