Haslam: 500 Years of Anti-Utopianism Jonathan Haslam: No Virtue Like Necessity - Realist Thought in International Relations since Machiavelli

Hardcover: 254 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press 2002
ISBN:0-300-091508

"Some of the best cynics were once great but later deeply disappointed idealists."

Haslam's literature review of 'realist thinkers' is a good cross section through the bipolar development of IR thinking. Against the hopes for universal empire and 'perfection of the world'-utopias, realists were arguing for a rational management of the system in order to avoid chaos and large-scale war.

"For the true realists rationality was a goal, not a precondition to behaviour."

Haslam tackles the tradition by researching realist core concepts: reason of state, balance of power and balance of trade linking them to the developments in geopolitics and neorealism. The underlying idea that one can see everywhere is the acknowledgement of the importance of understanding competition (for power).

The development of realist thought is a story from pragmatic 'theories' of foreign policy to theories of world politics - from study of unit to the study of system.

"on the surface historical ... most definitely prescriptive in intention and Hobbist in tone..."

  ¶ 8/14/2006 12:15:00 ap.