Page 28 - Global Political Economy_Understanding The International Economic Order

THE NEW GL OBAL E CONOM IC ORD ER
to analysis of the international political economy. But even the very
term “realism” requires further elaboration.

My Perspective: State-centric Realism
Realism is a philosophical position and an analytic perspective; it is
not necessarily a moral commitment to the nation-state. Many real-
ists, in fact, lament a world in which the nation-state is not ade-
quately restrained by international rules and moral considerations.
Nor is realism a scientific theory. As a philosophic or intellectual per-
spective, realism is not subject to the Popperian criterion of falsifi-
ability and, like other philosophic positions such as liberalism and
Marxism, realism can neither be proved nor disproved by empirical
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research. However, international relations scholarship in the realist
tradition has led to a number of theories or hypotheses such as the
theories of the balance of power and hegemonic stability that can
be and have been subjected to empirical testingto determine their
validity.
Several years ago, I was asked if there was a difference between
realism and nationalism. The question startled me, as I had always
thought that any reader of Hans Morgenthau, Hedley Bull, and other
prominent realist writers would be fully aware that while these schol-
ars were realists in their analysis of international affairs and their
sober expectations regarding human possibilities, they were by no
means nationalists. The realist diagnosing the illnesses of the human
condition is not endorsingwhat he or she sees any more than a physi-
cian endorses the cancer found in a patient. Morgenthau’s writings, in
fact, attacked unbridled nationalism and, in Politics Among Nations
(1972), he set forth rules for diplomatic behavior that could assist
nations to live in peace with one another at the same time that they
safeguarded their national interests. As critics charge, Morgenthau
may have been naive in believingthat it was possible to prescribe
moral and diplomatic principles based on his own realist assump-
tions. The point, however, for Morgenthau and other realists (myself
included), is that realism and nationalism are not identical. National-
ists may be realists, but realists are not necessarily nationalists.
Although realists recognize the central role of the state, security,
and power in international affairs, they do not necessarily approve of
this situation. The teacher who first introduced me to realism as an

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Accordingto the philosopher of science Karl Popper, if an idea or hypothesis, etc.,
cannot be refuted, at least in principle, it is not a “scientific” statement.
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