IRLS210
Mearsheimer, John. "Strategies for survival." Chap. 1.6 in Perspectives on World Politics, by Richard Little, & Michael Smith, 69-79. London: Taylor and Francis Routledge, 2006.
John Mearsheimer in his piece titled “Strategy and Survival” poses a question of why states pursue power, or in other words, why do great powers vie with each other for power and strive for hegemony. Through out his piece, he gives five assumptions of why this is to be true. The first assumption is that the international system is anarchic. By saying anarchic, he does not necessarily mean that there is conflict or anything like that but that the individual states do not have a central authority above them. The second assumption that he explained was that as great powers, states often possess offensive capabilities and can possibly destroy each other. The third is that states can never be certain about other states, so basically watching their backs and their people. The fourth assumption is that survival is the primary goal of all great powers and in a competitive world we will all do whatever is needed to survive and protect our people and the fifth is that great powers are rational and they are always aware of their surroundings and always think about how they will survive.
John Mearsheimers ideas are important in this piece because he has done extensive research on this subject and it is important and also interesting to know how all these states interact and why they all seem to pursue power and strive to be on top. In the big picture, he has done some good work writing this paper. It really gives the reader a good idea of the world and different states within it and gives them insight on why countries get into altercations trying to establish dominance.
John Mearsheimer in his piece titled “Strategy and Survival” poses a question of why states pursue power, or in other words, why do great powers vie with each other for power and strive for hegemony. Through out his piece, he gives five assumptions of why this is to be true. The first assumption is that the international system is anarchic. By saying anarchic, he does not necessarily mean that there is conflict or anything like that but that the individual states do not have a central authority above them. The second assumption that he explained was that as great powers, states often possess offensive capabilities and can possibly destroy each other. The third is that states can never be certain about other states, so basically watching their backs and their people. The fourth assumption is that survival is the primary goal of all great powers and in a competitive world we will all do whatever is needed to survive and protect our people and the fifth is that great powers are rational and they are always aware of their surroundings and always think about how they will survive.
John Mearsheimers ideas are important in this piece because he has done extensive research on this subject and it is important and also interesting to know how all these states interact and why they all seem to pursue power and strive to be on top. In the big picture, he has done some good work writing this paper. It really gives the reader a good idea of the world and different states within it and gives them insight on why countries get into altercations trying to establish dominance.