Williams: The Realist Tradition Michael C. Williams: The Realist Tradition and the limits of International Relations

Hardcover: 254 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press 2005
ISBN:0521534755

"Wilful Realism invokes a politics of tragic self-denial... a choice... one between love and greatness." (p. 195)

Michael C. Williams rereads the classic Realists and finds evidence against the orthodox - narrow and nihilistic - understanding of Realism in IR. Based on novel reading of Hobbes, Rousseau and Morgenthau, Williams forwards Wilful Realism, a construct of the 'better' elements of the tradition. Wilful Realpolitik is thoroughly concerned with questions of ethics - understanding and evaluing justice and political responsibility.

Williams recognizes the similarities between classical Realism and post-modern approaches, concluding that "for wilful Realists a rationalistic actor is an (constructed) identity". Here I think comes the invincibility of Realism (in IR) in general - our political world is definitely not perfect but it is even then a construct, (that is working in some areas very well!). State system, for example, surely is harmful when one thinks of trans-national problems (such as pollution) but it has been a definite success in some crucial areas - generating wealth and creating a framework for promoting parliamentary democracy, human rights and multiculturalism.

"... one of the key insights of the wilful Realist tradition: that political orders must be created..." (p. 206)

Second Opinion: John Ikenberry / Foreign Affairs  ¶ 5/28/2006 12:07:00 ip.