----- Original Message ----- From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2001 10:33 AM Subject: Re: "Cause" vs. "Justified" (was: Re: Hitchens responds to critics)
>
>
> Justin Schwartz wrote:
> >
> > > > From: "Justin Schwartz" <jkschw at hotmail.com>
> > > > >
> > > > > The dominant neorealist view is that states are states and
pursue
> > > > their
> > >
> > >I know what "realism" means in a dozen or so different contexts,
but
> > >this one is not clear to me.
> > >
> > >Carrol
> >
> > In international relations studies "realism" is the view that the
main
> > determinant of be behavior states in the internatioanl system is
> > self-interested state behavior pursuing self-aggrandizement under
conditions
> > of anarchy (no world government).
>
> From what you and Ian say (and what I wanted was a brief statement
of
> this sort) my flippant citation of Plato (in response to Kelley) is
> substantially correct: This "realist" view does see states as
Platonic
> absolutes rather than as complexes of social relations?! They make
> history but are not themselves historical (except in a merely
> chronological sense).
>
> Carrol
>
===========
Realism in IR cannot be reduced to platonism. It does see states as complexes of social relations but it doesn't question state formation thus giving the kind of narrative/explanatory bias that conservatives love!
Ian