Much of the focus of Realist theories on international politics has been on politics between the great powers. Most Realists are quite explicit about this bias. Both Kenneth N. Waltz, the father of Neorealism, and John J. Mearsheimer, the leading proponent of offensive Realism, have argued that a theory of international politics has to be written concentrating on the great powers because they affect other states and the international system far more than any other actors in the system.
Kenneth Waltz hailed as the ‘King of thought’ was a towering thinker in the field of IR. His two most important works, Man, The State, and War (1959) and Theory of International Politics (1979), provided a framework within which emerged the principal debate in IR.
From a Realist perspective, the key problem with a Nehruvian/Liberal approach to foreign policy is that it misunderstands power and ignores the centrality of balance of power politics in interstate relations.
Common sense suggests that India as the weaker partner has much more to gain from the relationship with the U.S., but common sense has always been somewhat scarce in Indian strategic thought.
Nuclear disarmament is once again fashionable. If rhetoric was sufficient, nuclear disarmament should be easily achievable. But what the rhetoric hides is not only the difficulty of achieving nuclear disarmament, but also the instrumental manner in which that rhetoric is being deployed. At the height of the Cold War, the two superpowers traded a number of detailed proposals for controlling the atom.
Kenneth Waltz R.I.P. (1924-2013)
Kenneth Waltz hailed as the ‘King of thought’ was a towering thinker in the field of IR. His two most important works, Man, The State, and War (1959) and Theory of International Politics (1979), provided a framework within which emerged the principal debate in IR.