{"id":48934,"date":"2019-07-08T12:30:18","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T02:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=48934"},"modified":"2019-07-08T11:42:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T01:42:06","slug":"from-the-bookshelf-the-great-delusion-liberal-dreams-and-international-realities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/from-the-bookshelf-the-great-delusion-liberal-dreams-and-international-realities\/","title":{"rendered":"From the bookshelf: \u2018The great delusion: liberal dreams and international realities\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Policymakers are generally uninterested in, if not actively contemptuous of, the scribblings of academics. There have, of course, been some notable exceptions to this general pattern, and even some individuals who managed to be both. Henry Kissinger and the late Zbigniew Brzezinski spring to mind. The other thing Kissinger and Brzezinski had in common was that they were both \u2018realists\u2019, the one conceptual paradigm that has exerted a powerful influence on policymakers\u2014whether they know it or not.<\/p>\n

John Mearsheimer is probably the most influential realist in the world today. The great delusion<\/em><\/a> demonstrates why: punchy, clearly written prose and a compelling argument. It\u2019s one of the most important contributions to scholarly international relations literature. It\u2019s also one of the most depressing for someone of my philosophical and psychological disposition, not least because its trenchantly argued central thesis looks all-too-plausible.<\/p>\n

People familiar with Mearsheimer\u2019s work\u2014and anyone reading this probably is\u2014will recognise some familiar themes in this volume. The international system is \u2018anarchical\u2019, always will be, and \u2018great powers have little choice but to act according to realist dictates\u2019. Realists have nothing but disdain for the lesser lights of the international order, and not just failed or micro states either: \u2018middle powers\u2019 don\u2019t rate even a mention in a world governed by Mearsheimer\u2019s realist principles.<\/p>\n

There are, however, two major claims in this book that policymakers in Canberra\u2014and everywhere else for that matter\u2014would do well to chew over, even if their subsequent actions are unlikely to have any material impact on international outcomes.<\/p>\n

First, and perhaps most comfortingly for Australia\u2019s strategic elites, the United States really ought to stand up to China, Mearsheimer contends. Indeed, the US \u2018will have no choice\u00a0but to adopt a realist foreign policy, simply because it must prevent\u00a0China from becoming a regional hegemon in Asia\u2019.<\/p>\n

This is a theme first outlined in Mearsheimer\u2019s previous opus, The tragedy of great power politics<\/em>. Anticipating the much-discussed \u2018Thucydides trap\u2019, Mearsheimer argued that not only is conflict with China more or less inevitable, but that all American policymakers can do is to postpone the inevitable day of reckoning by slowing down China\u2019s economic ascent. In the realist universe, rich countries buy more bombs as that\u2019s ultimately what counts in deciding which country calls the literal and metaphorical shots.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s doubtful that US President Donald Trump has read any of Mearsheimer\u2019s work but I\u2019d be surprised if at least some of his rapidly changing cast of advisers haven\u2019t. It helps to explain the current zero-sum approach to trade disputes, after all. It may also help to explain the Trump administration\u2019s equally disdainful attitude towards international institutions.<\/p>\n

The feeble and ineffective nature of international institutions is another prominent feature of the Mearsheimian world view, and it gets a sustained airing in the current volume. Interestingly, however, Mearsheimer takes this argument one important step further and claims that misconceived liberal idealism (rather than realism) is actually the cause of many of the world\u2019s current problems. On the one hand, this is because liberal idealism is delusional bunkum at best, outright hypocrisy at worst: \u2018No liberal state has ever shown serious interest in helping other states to gain economic advantages at its expense just to fight global injustice, and there is little reason to think any ever will.\u2019<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the attempt to impose justice, encourage liberal values, democracy and all the rest of it is not just a recipe for \u2018doing more harm than good\u2019 (think Iraq), but even more worryingly \u2018once unleashed on the world stage, a liberal unipole soon becomes addicted to war.\u2019 While it\u2019s certainly true that the US has been at war for over 90% of the time since its inception, this is not necessarily because it\u2019s been a champion of liberalism.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, the US has a history of supporting some fairly loathsome regimes who are decidedly illiberal\u2014the Trump administration\u2019s infatuation with Saudi Arabia being the most indefensible contemporary case in point. But Mearsheimer may be right in thinking that this reflects a fairly hard-nosed calculation of the national interest, even if he is wrong about the construction of more achievable \u2018realistic\u2019 foreign policy ambitions as a consequence. For better or worse, the Trump administration has demonstrated a continuing willingness to \u2018engage\u2019 with the world, albeit erratically and without any obvious overarching strategy or goal other than \u2018America first\u2019.<\/p>\n

As Mearsheimer rather mournfully concedes, \u2018realism does not inspire a hopeful outlook for the future.\u2019 There will be little disagreement on that score, at least. Realists would argue that it\u2019s their job and responsibility to \u2018tell it like it is\u2019 and wrestle with problems their delusional liberal counterparts would rather ignore or pretend they can address. Looking around today\u2019s world, with its catalogue of ineffective institutions, rising authoritarian powers, failing democracies and international flashpoints, one can see his point.<\/p>\n

The great crisis that Mearsheimer entirely neglects to mention, though, is the one problem that absolutely necessitates collective action and cooperation on an unimaginable and unprecedented scale.<\/p>\n

I refer, of course, to climate change. Realists are probably right about the chances of doing anything about that, too, but they could at least have the intellectual honesty to tell us where we\u2019re all headed if we continue to put \u2018realistic\u2019 national interests ahead of all others. Perhaps they should re-read Hobbes<\/a>; no one does well out of a war of all against all. The great delusion<\/em> is a book for the ages. If its central thesis is accurate, though, there may not be future ages to appreciate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Policymakers are generally uninterested in, if not actively contemptuous of, the scribblings of academics. 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