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Defensive realism

Defensive realism is a strand of neorealist theory in international relations that posits states as rational security maximizers in an anarchic global system, where aggressive power grabs are typically self-defeating due to the high costs of conquest, the ubiquity of the security dilemma, and the formation of balancing coalitions against perceived threats.^[1] Emerging in the late 20th century as a refinement of Kenneth Waltz's structural realism, it emphasizes structural incentives for moderation, arguing that ample security is attainable without hegemony because relative power gains beyond defensive needs provoke fear and retaliation among peers.^[2] Key proponents, including Waltz, Robert Jervis, Jack Snyder, Stephen Walt, Stephen Van Evera, and Charles Glaser, highlight variables such as geography, offense-defense balances, and elite perceptions to explain why states prioritize survival over dominance, often achieving stability through buck-passing or limited alliances rather than preemptive wars.^[2]^[3] In contrast to offensive realism's view of states as relentless power accumulators, defensive realism predicts restraint as the systemic default, with expansion occurring mainly under misperceptions or domestic pressures rather than inherent anarchy-driven imperatives.^[1]^[4] This framework has influenced analyses of phenomena like the Cold War's bipolar stability and post-Cold War U.S. retrenchment debates, underscoring how offense-dominant technologies or ideologies can temporarily shift behaviors toward aggression.^[5] Critics, however, contend it overrelies on optimistic assumptions about conquest's difficulty and underplays historical evidence of opportunistic expansion, such as imperial conquests in eras of weak balancing, potentially leading to policy complacency in facing revisionist powers.^[2]^[6] Despite such debates, its focus on causal mechanisms like the security dilemma—where defensive arms buildups signal offense—remains a cornerstone for understanding restraint in great-power competition.^[1]

Historical Development

Foundations in Classical Realism

Classical realism, as a precursor to defensive realism, drew from ancient historical analysis to underscore how anarchy fosters caution among states through fear-induced balancing rather than unchecked aggression. Thucydides, in his History of the Peloponnesian War (written circa 411–400 BCE), attributed the war's outbreak (431–404 BCE) primarily to Sparta's fear of Athens' rising power, stating that "the real reason for the war is, in my opinion, to be found in the growth of Athenian power and the alarm which this caused in Sparta," yet he documented how countervailing alliances and mutual apprehensions repeatedly checked expansionist impulses, as seen in the formation of the Peloponnesian League against Athenian overreach.^[7]^[8] This dynamic illustrated a causal restraint: states pursue security amid uncertainty, but aggressive bids invite coalitions that restore equilibrium, limiting conquests to defensive necessities rather than perpetual empire-building.^[9] In the interwar period, E.H. Carr advanced this lineage by dismantling utopian assumptions of harmonious international order in The Twenty Years' Crisis (1939), arguing that the anarchic absence of supranational authority compels states to define interests in power terms, rejecting moralistic harmony as illusory and instead highlighting how reciprocal power struggles inherently constrain unilateral aggression through inevitable opposition.^[10] Carr's critique of liberal idealism emphasized realism's empirical grounding in historical power politics, where anarchy's logic promotes prudence over hubris, as unchecked pursuits provoke balancing responses that undermine the aggressor's position.^[11] Hans Morgenthau synthesized these insights in Politics Among Nations (1948), positing six principles of realism centered on the national interest as power, with prudence as the "supreme virtue" in navigating anarchy's uncertainties to avoid overextension.^[10]^[12] Morgenthau warned that ideological crusades or excessive ambition distort rational power calculations, inviting counterbalancing coalitions and defeat, as relative power dynamics punish states that stray beyond defensive security maximization.^[13] This emphasis on calculated restraint—rooted in human nature's drive for survival amid perpetual conflict—laid the groundwork for defensive realism's view of states as inherently cautious actors, prioritizing status quo preservation over risky expansion.

Neorealist Evolution

Neorealism emerged in the late 1970s as a structural refinement of classical realism, emphasizing the anarchic international system's constraints on state behavior rather than internal or human-centric factors. Kenneth Waltz's Theory of International Politics (1979) formalized this shift by positing that anarchy compels states to prioritize survival and security maximization, fostering defensive strategies like balance-of-power politics over hegemonic pursuits. Waltz contended that structural features, particularly the distribution of capabilities among states, dictate outcomes; in bipolar configurations, such as the post-World War II U.S.-Soviet rivalry, stability prevails due to simplified threat assessments and mutual deterrence, reducing the risks of miscalculation inherent in multipolar systems.^[14]^[15] Building on this foundation, the 1980s and 1990s saw neorealism incorporate variables like the offense-defense balance to explain why systemic pressures incentivize restraint. Robert Jervis, in "Cooperation under the Security Dilemma" (1978), analyzed how technological and geographical factors determine whether offense or defense predominates; when defense holds an advantage—evident in eras of fortified borders or nuclear stalemates—states perceive lower gains from aggression, as conquest yields high costs relative to defensive postures. This balance eases the security dilemma, where one state's defensive buildup appears offensive to others, thereby permitting equilibria where states pursue adequate power for protection without provoking escalatory arms races or preventive wars.^[16] These developments underscore neorealism's causal emphasis on system-level forces, where anarchy generates incentives for states to calibrate capabilities to match threats minimally, avoiding the inefficiencies of overexpansion that invite counterbalancing. Empirical observations, such as the relative peace in bipolar Europe during the Cold War (1947–1991), align with predictions of defensive equilibrium under defensive-dominant conditions, contrasting with multipolar instabilities like those preceding World War I.^[14]

Key Scholarly Contributions

Stephen M. Walt's 1987 book The Origins of Alliances provided an empirical foundation for defensive realism by examining alliance patterns among Middle Eastern states from 1955 to 1979, developing balance-of-threat theory as a corrective to pure balance-of-power predictions. Walt argued that states form alliances primarily to counter perceived threats, defined by factors including aggregate power, geographic proximity, offensive military capabilities, and perceived aggressive intentions, rather than raw power distribution alone; this derivation from systemic anarchy prioritizes defensive responses to uncertainty over expansionist drives.^[17]^[18] Charles L. Glaser extended defensive realist logic in his 1997 article "The Security Dilemma Revisited," published in World Politics, by dissecting the variability of security dilemmas under anarchy and identifying conditions—such as offense-defense balance and state intentions—where mutual security-seeking enables cooperation through reassurance strategies like arms control and transparency measures. Glaser emphasized verifiable signals to distinguish benign security maximizers from greedy actors, contending that aggressive policies exacerbate dilemmas while restrained ones can foster stability, thus grounding defensive realism in rational, conditional assessments of adversary motives rather than inevitable conflict.^[19] The 1997 edited volume Security Under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Reconsidered, compiled by Colin Elman and Miriam Fendius Elman, synthesized contributions from multiple scholars to refine defensive realism amid post-Cold War debates, incorporating case studies and theoretical clarifications on how domestic politics and perceptual factors condition systemic pressures toward balancing without hegemony-seeking. This collection countered offensive realist assertions of inevitable expansion by highlighting empirical instances of restraint and buck-passing, deriving from anarchy the principle that conquest often yields diminishing security returns due to resistance and overextension risks.^[3]

Core Theoretical Framework

Systemic Anarchy and Security Dilemma

In the neorealist framework, systemic anarchy denotes the absence of a hierarchically superior authority capable of arbitrating disputes or enforcing cooperation among sovereign states, as defined by Kenneth Waltz in Theory of International Politics.^[20] This structural condition, distinct from domestic hierarchies where governments maintain order, compels states to prioritize self-reliance for survival, engendering a self-help system where capabilities serve as the ultimate guarantor of security.^[21] Waltz emphasizes that anarchy does not imply chaos but rather a ordering principle that shapes state behavior through functional imperatives, with states compelled to attend to their relative power positions to mitigate existential risks.^[22] Arising from this anarchic environment is mutual suspicion, as states lack reliable information about others' intentions and capabilities, fostering incentives for precautionary measures that prioritize defense over expansion.^[23] The security dilemma, as elaborated by Robert Jervis in his 1978 article "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma," captures this dynamic: one state's efforts to enhance its security through defensive armaments or alliances inevitably appear threatening to others, provoking countermeasures that erode the initial actor's security gains.^[16] Jervis models this using a Prisoner's Dilemma framework, where mutual defection (arms buildups) prevails due to uncertainty, yet cooperation becomes feasible when defensive technologies predominate, reducing the offense-defense balance in favor of stability. Causally, states interpret ambiguous signals—such as military mobilizations—from a defensive posture to avert worst-case vulnerabilities, without presupposing inherent aggression in others, as unchecked optimism could invite exploitation in an untrustworthy system.^[16] Empirical patterns support this logic; for instance, Jervis notes that arms competitions in eras favoring defensive postures, like certain post-1945 nuclear dyads, often stabilize rather than escalate to war, as verifiable defensive deployments signal restraint rather than conquest intent.^[23] Defensive realists contend this dilemma's severity varies with technological and geographic factors, but anarchy's core uncertainty consistently drives security-seeking behaviors that preserve the status quo over risky power grabs.^[3]

Security Maximization Principle

Defensive realism posits that states, operating in an anarchic international system, adhere to a security maximization principle by pursuing only the level of relative power necessary to deter threats and ensure survival, rather than seeking dominance or hegemony. This approach stems from the recognition that excessive expansion invites systemic backlash, rendering aggressive power accumulation counterproductive for long-term security. Kenneth Waltz, a foundational neorealist, argued that states under anarchy prioritize security over power maximization, as the structure of the system incentivizes restraint to avoid provoking rivals.^[5] Unlike theories emphasizing inherent greed or revisionist motives, defensive realism highlights that conquest typically produces diminishing returns, offset by substantial costs including military occupation, local resistance, and the erosion of conquered territories' productivity. Empirical analyses indicate that aggressive expansion rarely yields net gains, as the logistical and administrative burdens of control outweigh initial territorial acquisitions, particularly in modern eras with nationalist populations and advanced weaponry.^[24] Historically, the majority of states have preserved status quo power distributions, resorting to expansion only amid acute existential perils rather than as a default strategy. This pattern underscores the principle's causal logic: unchecked aggression galvanizes counterbalancing coalitions among other powers, amplifying the aggressor's vulnerabilities. The post-Napoleonic Concert of Europe, established after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, exemplifies this mechanism, as European great powers—Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia—formed alliances to contain French revanchism and maintain equilibrium, thereby deterring unilateral bids for supremacy for decades.^[25]

Balancing Dynamics and Expansion Risks

Defensive realism posits that states, seeking to maximize security in an anarchic system, engage in balancing behaviors that prioritize cost-effective restraint over risky expansion, often through buck-passing—delegating the primary burden of countering threats to other states—or soft balancing via diplomatic entanglements and economic sanctions rather than direct military confrontation.^[1]^[26] These strategies prevail when threats remain ambiguous or distant, as hard balancing incurs high immediate costs and risks escalation, whereas game-theoretic analyses of the security dilemma reveal that aggressive bids for power trigger defensive responses from rivals, diminishing net gains for the initiator.^[27] Attempts at hegemonic expansion exacerbate these risks by fostering overextension, where the aggressor's commitments strain resources and provoke unified backlash from status quo powers, as seen in the Napoleonic Empire's invasion of Spain in 1808 and Russia in 1812, which dispersed French forces across vast territories and enabled coalitions culminating in defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815.^[28] Defensive realists argue such overreach is self-defeating, as conquests yield diminishing security returns amid rising resistance, with historical patterns showing that empires exceeding regional dominance—controlling less than 20% of global resources in Napoleon's case—face inevitable revisionist alliances that erode their position.^[1]^[29] Structural polarity further shapes these dynamics: bipolar systems enforce greater restraint than multipolar ones, as evidenced by the Cold War era (1947–1991), where U.S.-Soviet rivalry stabilized through mutual internal mobilization and deterrence, avoiding major great-power wars despite nuclear arsenals exceeding 70,000 warheads combined by 1986.^[30] In contrast, multipolar configurations amplify buck-passing inefficiencies and miscalculation risks, with Kenneth Waltz's analysis indicating that bipolarity's clarity reduces alliance uncertainties, curbing expansionist temptations more effectively than the fragmented balancing in pre-1914 Europe.^[31]

Internal and Perceptual Factors

Role of Elite Beliefs

In defensive realism, elite beliefs serve as unit-level variables that filter systemic incentives, potentially amplifying the security dilemma through misperceptions without fundamentally altering the anarchic structure's defensive imperatives. Scholars argue that while leaders' ideologies and cognitive biases may prompt temporary deviations toward riskier policies, such as overexpansion, these are ultimately self-correcting due to balancing dynamics and the high costs of aggression. This integration acknowledges perceptual errors but subordinates them to structural constraints, contrasting with theories that elevate domestic factors to primacy.^[1] Jack Snyder's 1991 analysis in Myths of Empire exemplifies this by attributing elite-driven overreach to domestic "myths"—coalesced ideologies and interest-group pressures, such as militarism or nationalism, that rationalize expansionist agendas among ruling coalitions. Snyder posits that these myths foster logrolling among elites, leading states like Wilhelmine Germany or imperial Japan to pursue costly empires, yet systemic backlash, including counterbalancing alliances and resource drains, enforces restraint in myth-resistant polities aligned with defensive realism's tenets. He emphasizes that unchecked elite beliefs precipitate failure rather than hegemony, as evidenced by the collapse of overextended bids amid peer competition, reinforcing that perceptual distortions exacerbate but do not supplant security maximization.^[32] Robert Jervis further illuminates elite perceptual roles, contending in his 1976 work Perception and Misperception in International Politics that cognitive biases—such as mirror-imaging opponents' intentions or underestimating defensive signals—can intensify mutual suspicions, prompting arms buildups mistaken for offensive preparations. Within defensive realism, however, Jervis views such errors as biasing elites toward deterrence and status quo preservation over conquest, given anarchy's inherent uncertainties; aggressive interpretations rarely sustain long-term gains due to retaliation risks. Empirical illustrations include post-World War I elite recalibrations, where Allied leaders, scarred by the conflict's 16 million deaths and total mobilization costs, embedded defensive constraints in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles—disarmament clauses and reparations aimed at neutralizing German revanchism—debunking notions of perpetual elite aggression by highlighting learned aversion to disequilibrating bids that invite coalitions. This Versailles architecture, though imperfect, reflected perceptual shifts toward balancing that temporarily stabilized Europe until domestic upheavals reemerged, underscoring systemic primacy over elite volition.^[33]

Domestic Constraints on Foreign Policy

In democratic polities, electoral accountability and public aversion to high-cost military engagements impose significant limits on foreign policy expansionism, compelling leaders to prioritize security maximization over risky adventurism unless vital national interests are directly threatened. Voters, bearing the economic and human burdens of war, exert pressure through opinion polls and elections, as evidenced by consistent findings that democratic publics oppose prolonged or non-defensive conflicts.^[34] This domestic restraint indirectly bolsters the democratic peace proposition, where institutional mechanisms—such as legislative oversight and free media—filter out aggressive impulses, fostering policies aligned with defensive realism's emphasis on status quo preservation.^[35] Authoritarian regimes, lacking such broad accountability, encounter divergent pressures from narrow elite or bureaucratic coalitions that may advocate territorial grabs to consolidate power or extract resources, yet these pursuits heighten vulnerability to systemic backlash under anarchy. Logrolling among military or industrial interests can propel expansionist agendas, but overreach invites balancing coalitions and economic isolation, undermining regime stability. Imperial Japan's militarist-driven conquests from 1931 to 1941, including the invasion of Manchuria and the Pacific War entry, exemplify this dynamic: unchecked domestic factions pursued autarkic empire-building, only to face overwhelming retaliation from the Allied powers, culminating in unconditional surrender in 1945.^[36] Post-1945 empirical patterns reveal democracies adhering more reliably to defensive balancing, responding to threats with alliances and deterrence rather than conquest, in contrast to autocracies' occasional deviations toward opportunism. Quantitative analyses of interstate conflicts since 1945 show democracies initiating fewer militarized disputes and territorial annexations, with leaders constrained by selectorate pressures to avoid escalatory risks absent existential stakes. Autocracies, while capable of efficient mobilization, demonstrate higher variance in restraint, as seen in cases like Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, where domestic imperatives overrode systemic signals. This divergence underscores how domestic structures reinforce structural incentives for caution in democracies while amplifying errors in autocracies.^[37]^[38]

Comparisons and Distinctions

Versus Offensive Realism

Offensive realism, as developed by John J. Mearsheimer in The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001), contends that anarchy generates inescapable uncertainty about other states' intentions, prompting great powers to maximize relative power through expansionist strategies aimed at regional hegemony, since relative weakness invites exploitation and survival cannot be guaranteed short of dominance.^[39] Defensive realists rebut this by highlighting structural and technological barriers to successful conquest, such as the offense-defense balance, where defensive postures historically yield higher efficacy than offensive ones, rendering power maximization not only risky but often counterproductive due to balancing coalitions and logistical costs.^[1] In the nuclear era, defensive realism underscores defense dominance through mutually assured destruction, where offensive nuclear strategies invite catastrophic retaliation, empirically correlating with the absence of great power wars since 1945 despite power transitions, as states prioritize survival over aggressive bids that could trigger escalation.^[1] ^[40] Offensive realism, by contrast, anticipates persistent hegemonic pursuits even under such conditions, yet the post-1945 restraint—evident in no direct U.S.-Soviet conventional invasions—diverges from predictions of inevitable expansion, supporting defensive emphasis on systemic incentives for caution.^[39] The debate originated in 1990s scholarly exchanges, formalized by Jeffrey W. Taliaferro's "Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited" (2000/01), which critiques offensive realism's uniform assumption of aggressive state motivations as ahistorical, ignoring how anarchy variably conditions behavior based on resolvability of security dilemmas and perceptual factors rather than innate greed.^[41] Taliaferro argues that offensive models overpredict conflict by conflating all expansion with systemic imperatives, whereas defensive variants align with evidence of security-seeking restraint, such as the limited incidence of great power wars from 1815 to 1914 amid shifting balances, where states balanced threats without routine conquest for greed.^[41] ^[42] This empirical divergence—restraint prevailing over universal aggression—bolsters defensive realism's explanatory edge, as mixed war outcomes post-1815 reflect security maximization under offense-defense variability rather than perpetual power grabs, challenging offensive realism's portrayal of states as structurally doomed to tragedy.^[43] Defensive proponents maintain that while uncertainty exists, it incentivizes buck-passing and alliances over solo expansion when conquest costs exceed gains, a pattern offensive theory accommodates less readily without ad hoc revisions.^[44]

Versus Liberal Internationalism

Liberal internationalism, drawing from Immanuel Kant's essay Perpetual Peace (1795), posits that republican constitutions, economic interdependence, and international federations can foster mutual gains and diminish incentives for war by aligning state interests toward cooperation. Similarly, Woodrow Wilson's advocacy for the League of Nations after World War I (1919) emphasized collective security through institutions to prevent aggression via shared commitments. Defensive realists counter that such frameworks overestimate the capacity of institutions to mitigate the structural anarchy of the international system, where states prioritize relative security gains amid persistent mistrust and the security dilemma.^[45] In this view, even robust international organizations (IOs) cannot reliably resolve core security conflicts, as states remain compelled to self-help due to uncertainties about others' intentions and capabilities.^[46] Empirical evidence underscores these limitations. The League of Nations, established in 1920, proved unable to deter Italian aggression in Ethiopia (1935) or Japanese expansion in Manchuria (1931), collapsing amid great-power withdrawals and failing to prevent World War II's outbreak in 1939. More recently, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), despite its post-1945 mandate for maintaining peace, has been paralyzed in addressing Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, due to Russia's veto power as a permanent member, rendering resolutions ineffective against vital security interests.^[47] Defensive realists interpret these outcomes as confirmation that IOs facilitate peripheral cooperation but falter when confronting existential threats, as seen in the UN's inability to enforce ceasefires or sanctions decisively amid power asymmetries.^[48] Causally, defensive realism attributes this shortfall to the primacy of anarchy over institutional design: while IOs may reduce transaction costs for absolute gains in trade or minor disputes, the relative gains problem—where states fear others benefiting disproportionately—erodes trust in security realms, perpetuating balancing behaviors.^[45] Joseph Grieco argues that neoliberal institutionalism, a variant of liberal thought, neglects these distributional concerns, leading to an overly optimistic assessment of cooperation's stability under uncertainty.^[45] Thus, liberal internationalism's emphasis on normalized interventionism ignores how defensive state postures prioritize survival over idealistic enforcement, rendering institutional promises illusory when great powers perceive threats to their core positions.^[46]

Empirical Support and Case Studies

Historical Illustrations

The bipolar structure of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union demonstrated defensive realism's emphasis on security through deterrence and balancing, as neither superpower pursued conquest of the other despite ideological antagonism and proxy conflicts from 1947 onward. Kenneth Waltz contended that bipolarity enhanced stability by compelling each pole to monitor and match the other's capabilities closely, reducing miscalculation risks compared to multipolar systems; nuclear arsenals, with the U.S. achieving monopoly until 1949 and parity emerging by the 1960s, enforced mutual vulnerability under doctrines like massive retaliation and mutual assured destruction.^[49] This dynamic persisted without direct great-power war, as both sides prioritized survival over expansion, evidenced by arms control agreements such as the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty and the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, which capped offensive capabilities to preserve equilibrium.^[50] In 19th-century Europe, the balance-of-power system post-Napoleonic Wars, formalized at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, prevented hegemonic dominance by coordinating great powers—Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia—to contain French revanchism and suppress revolutionary threats, maintaining relative stability until 1914. The Concert of Europe mechanism involved collective interventions, such as the 1820 Congress of Troppau against liberal uprisings and the 1856 Congress of Paris after the Crimean War, which redistributed territories to equalize influence and deter unilateral bids for supremacy; Britain, as offshore balancer, intervened decisively against potential hegemons like France in 1823 (Spain) and Russia in 1854.^[51] No single power achieved continental hegemony during this period, with alliance shifts—such as the 1815 Quadruple Alliance—ensuring that aggressive expansions, like Prussia's in 1866 and 1870, triggered counter-coalitions without enabling unchecked dominance.^[52] The prelude to World War I highlighted defensive realism's security dilemma, where alliance fears and perceptual threats drove preemptive defensive mobilizations among European powers, escalating a regional crisis into general war in July-August 1914. The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy; renewed 1882-1912) and Triple Entente (France, Russia, Britain; formalized 1907) formed primarily to balance against encirclement perceptions, with states amassing forces for deterrence—Russia's 1913 "Great Program" expanding artillery for border defense, France's Plan XVII emphasizing fortified frontiers, and Britain's naval supremacy via the 1906 Dreadnought ensuring sea denial rather than invasion.^[53] Despite offensive contingencies like Germany's Schlieffen Plan, predominant preparations focused on countering invasions, as alliance rigidities amplified mutual suspicions; for instance, Austria-Hungary's July 1914 ultimatum to Serbia stemmed from fears of Slavic encirclement, prompting Russian partial mobilization on July 25 as a defensive safeguard against Austro-German dominance.^[54] This spiral underscored how security-seeking behaviors, absent hegemonic ambitions, could inadvertently generate conflict through misperceived intentions.^[55]

Post-Cold War Applications

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, the United States emerged as the unchallenged unipolar power, possessing military capabilities far exceeding any potential rival, yet it refrained from territorial conquests or hegemonic expansion beyond its existing alliances. Defensive realism anticipates such restraint, positing that states prioritize security maximization over risky aggrandizement, which could provoke counterbalancing coalitions and domestic backlash. For instance, in the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. orchestrated a multinational coalition to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait without annexing territory or pursuing regime change in Baghdad, thereby avoiding the overextension costs highlighted in structural analyses of anarchy.^[41] This pattern persisted through the 1990s, with the U.S. engaging in limited interventions like the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia but delegating much of the ground stabilization to European allies, exemplifying buck-passing to distribute security burdens without unilateral dominance.^[56] The rise of China since the early 2000s, marked by its GDP surpassing Japan's in 2010 to become the world's second-largest economy, prompted defensive balancing rather than preemptive offensive action by the U.S. and its partners. Alliances such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (revived in 2017) and the AUKUS pact, announced on September 15, 2021, between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, focused on enhancing submarine capabilities and interoperability to deter potential Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific without initiating conflict.^[57] Defensive realism interprets these moves as responses to perceived power shifts threatening the status quo, where states seek equilibrium through alliances to maintain security margins rather than territorial grabs, as evidenced by Australia's policy evolution from hedging to targeted balancing amid China's 2013-2020 militarization of South China Sea features.^[58] Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine represents an exception underscoring defensive realism's emphasis on threat-driven responses, framed by Moscow as a counter to NATO's post-1999 eastward expansions, which incorporated 14 former Soviet bloc states by 2020 and raised prospects of Ukrainian membership. Realist analyses attribute the conflict to Russian security dilemmas exacerbated by NATO's proximity, with defensive postures prioritizing buffer zones against encirclement over ideological expansion.^[59] Empirical outcomes align with offense-defense balance theory integrated into defensive realism: modern technologies like precision-guided munitions, drones, and cyber defenses have prolonged Ukrainian resistance since February 24, 2022, favoring defenders by raising conquest costs and deterring escalation, as stagnant frontlines demonstrate despite initial Russian advantages.^[60] Recent assessments confirm that 21st-century shifts, including surveillance proliferation, have tilted toward defense-dominant conditions, reducing incentives for opportunistic wars amid declining unipolarity.^[61]

Criticisms and Theoretical Debates

Explanatory Shortcomings

Critics of defensive realism argue that its structural focus fails to adequately explain aggressive expansions motivated by ideology or revisionism, such as Nazi Germany's conquests in the 1930s and 1940s, which offensive realists attribute to inherent systemic incentives for power maximization rather than aberrations from security-seeking behavior.^[3] Defensive realism posits that such "greedy" state actions stem from unit-level factors like misperception or domestic pathologies, but detractors contend this ad hoc attribution reveals the theory's inability to predict or causally link anarchy to non-defensive aggression without resorting to non-structural variables.^[1] The theory's emphasis on systemic constraints is said to underplay domestic-level drivers, including regime insecurities or elite-driven pathologies, which empirical cases show can propel states toward expansionary policies irrespective of international structure.^[62] For instance, structural determinism generates weak predictions by minimizing how internal variables, such as authoritarian consolidation or ideological fervor, amplify threat perceptions and override balancing incentives.^[63] Large-N empirical tests reveal mixed evidence, as Rudloff's 2013 analysis of conflict initiation demonstrates that defensive realism does not universally predict restraint; outcomes vary with constraints like power distribution, indicating neither variant dominates explanatory power across cases.^[38] Post-Cold War applications, including the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 by a hegemon facing no existential threats, further challenge expectations of systemic-induced moderation, as costly offensive actions persisted amid relative security abundance.^[64]^[2]

Responses from Defensive Realists

Defensive realists address criticisms of explanatory shortcomings by integrating perceptual and rationalist refinements that preserve the theory's core assumptions while accounting for observed deviations from security-seeking behavior. Charles L. Glaser's 2010 rational theory posits that states' assessments of adversaries' resolve and capabilities critically influence strategic choices, enabling explanations for failures like appeasement without undermining the primacy of security motives. For example, in cases such as the 1930s Anglo-French policy toward Nazi Germany, misperceptions of German resolve as high relative to Allied capabilities led security-seekers to concede rather than deter, as perceived weakness incentivized probing aggression under uncertainty.^[65] This approach avoids ad hoc psychologism by grounding anomalies in verifiable informational asymmetries inherent to anarchy. Jeffrey W. Taliaferro's 2001 analysis reinforces defensive realism's predictive scope by demonstrating that security-seeking prevails across most dyads, with outliers—such as limited expansion by great powers—arising from structural modifiers like offense-defense variables or transient power shifts, not inherent theoretical flaws or systematic misperceptions. Taliaferro contends that these conditions create rational incentives for moderate risk-taking to forestall future threats, as in historical instances where states exploited perceived first-mover advantages, but misperceptions serve only as amplifiers rather than causal substitutes for genuine conflicts of interest.^[41] Empirical reviews of interstate interactions from 1816 to 1980 support this, showing restraint as the modal outcome except under specified systemic pressures. In rebutting institutionalist remedies often advanced as alternatives, defensive realists highlight data indicating alliances' inherent fragility without equilibrated power distributions, as anarchy fosters persistent doubts about commitment credibility. Neorealist examinations of alliance dynamics reveal that from 1815 onward, great powers have routinely under-relied on coalitions, with defections or ineffectiveness correlating to power asymmetries rather than normative deficits.^[66] For instance, pre-World War I ententes dissolved under shifting balances, underscoring that formal pacts substitute poorly for material equilibria in mitigating security dilemmas.^[66] This evidence prioritizes causal primacy of power over institutional design for stability.

Policy Implications

Advocacy for Restraint

Defensive realists derive a policy of restraint from the theory's core tenet that security is best preserved through moderate power maintenance rather than expansion, which triggers balancing coalitions and heightens conflict risks. This approach prioritizes prudence to avoid the self-defeating consequences of overreach, such as resource depletion and diminished relative power. Proponents like Barry Posen argue for limiting military commitments to essential deterrence, eschewing transformative interventions that strain capabilities without commensurate security gains.^[67] Offshore balancing exemplifies this restraint, advocating selective power projection—via naval and air assets—to prevent regional hegemony while avoiding ground occupations or nation-building. Such engagements occur only when local balancers falter, relying otherwise on alliances to check threats and distribute costs. The U.S.-led invasions of Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2001, costing approximately $2.3 trillion in direct appropriations and yielding persistent instability, underscore the pitfalls of deeper involvement, as insurgencies and reconstruction failures eroded strategic advantages.^[68]^[69] The advent of nuclear weapons reinforces defensive postures under mutual assured destruction (MAD), where retaliation risks render offensive wars irrational and promote cautious statecraft. Kenneth Waltz maintained that nuclear capabilities stabilize bipolar or multipolar systems by deterring attacks through assured devastation, reducing incentives for preemption or conquest compared to conventional eras.^[70] Empirical assessments of post-1945 conflicts further validate favoring alliances over unilateralism, as coalition burdensharing—evident in NATO's Cold War dynamics—curbs escalation while preserving balance without exhaustive commitments.^[71]

Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy

Defensive realism has shaped U.S. foreign policy debates by emphasizing restraint to maximize security, particularly during the Obama administration (2009–2017), where policies in Syria and Iran reflected efforts to avoid escalatory interventions that could provoke broader balancing against American power. In 2013, after the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons crossed President Obama's "red line," the administration opted against direct military strikes, instead securing a Russian-brokered agreement for Syria to relinquish its chemical arsenal, thereby exercising restraint in force deployment consistent with defensive realist aversion to unnecessary wars of choice.^[72] Similarly, the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran sought to reassure a regional rival by constraining its nuclear program through diplomacy and sanctions relief, rather than preemptive military action, aligning with defensive realism's focus on mitigating threats without power maximization.^[73] In the post-2022 Ukraine conflict, U.S. strategy has exemplified defensive realist principles through proxy support—providing over $60 billion in military aid by mid-2024 without committing ground troops—while encouraging European allies to bear primary responsibility, a form of buck-passing that preserves American resources for core interests like deterring China.^[74] This approach avoids direct entanglement in a peripheral European theater, prioritizing offshore balancing over forward deployment that might overextend U.S. commitments and invite balancing coalitions.^[75] Defensive realists have critiqued neoconservative deviations, such as the Bush doctrine articulated in 2002, which promoted preemptive war and democracy export as paths to hegemony, leading to the 2003 Iraq invasion that entangled the U.S. in prolonged occupation without enhancing long-term security.^[76] Scholars like Stephen Walt have argued that such offensive-tinged policies under Bush fostered hubris, squandering U.S. preponderance and triggering backlash, whereas restraint—advocated by defensive realism—better preserves influence by avoiding self-defeating overreach. These critiques underscore defensive realism's role in post-Iraq policy corrections toward caution, evident in subsequent administrations' aversion to large-scale ground interventions.^[77]

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The expansion of Athenian power was alarming to the Spartans and their allies in the so-called Peloponnesian League, and, according to Thucydides, this was the ...<|separator|>
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[PDF] Thucydides on Policy, Strategy, and War Termination
thucydides had a thesis—that the events and debates immediately before the outbreak of the second Peloponnesian War were not as important to its origins as ...Missing: analysis | Show results with:analysis
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(PDF) Thucydides' Realistic Critique of Realism - ResearchGate
Aug 5, 2025 · Thucydides is a theoretical realist who provides a sharp critique of political realism. He does support twentieth-century realists' claims about the weakness ...<|control11|><|separator|>
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Political Realism in International Relations
Jul 26, 2010 · Hans J. Morgenthau (1904–1980) developed realism into a comprehensive international relations theory. Influenced by the Protestant theologian ...The Roots of the Realist... · Thucydides and the... · Twentieth Century Classical...
[11]
[PDF] In the Shadow of E. H. Carr: The Evolution of International Politics
Mearsheimer also moves beyond a purely defensive interpretation of structure claiming, “There is no question that systemic factors constrain aggression, ...
[12]
chapter 12 international relations theory and american grand strategy
For Morgenthau, prudence is the supreme virtue of politics, and prudence is the necessary ... Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and ...
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Professor Morgenthau's Theory of Political "Realism" - jstor
Professor Morgenthau's argument for the supremacy of the national interest rests upon two premises, one dealing with the nature of international politics and ...
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https://oxfordre.com/internationalstudies/internationalstudies/abstract/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.001.0001/acrefore-9780190846626-e-304
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[PDF] The Theory of International Politics
There is classical Realism, neoclassical Realism, struc- tural Realism (aka Neorealism), human nature Realism, defensive Real- ism, and offensive Realism, and ...
[16]
Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma - jstor
The other major determinant of the offense-defense balance is tech- nology. When weapons are highly vulnerable, they must be employed before they are ...
[17]
[PDF] The Origins of Alliances - Stanford University
The Origins of Alliances, by Stephen M. Walt. The Ultimate Enemy: British ... Thus I propose balance of threat theory as a better alternative than balance of ...
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Alliances, Threats, and the Uses of Neorealism - jstor
Stephen M. Walt, The Origins of Alliances (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987), p. 275. Subsequent references to this book will be included ...
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The Security Dilemma Revisited | World Politics | Cambridge Core
Jun 13, 2011 · The security dilemma is the key to understanding how in an anarchic international system states with fundamentally compatible goals still end up in competition ...
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Summary of "Theory of International Politics" - Beyond Intractability
Waltz' theory is mainly a critique of “reductionist” theories which look at the behavior of the units in the system (ie states) to explain outcomes.
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Summary of Waltz: Theory of international politics
Anarchy means that the international system is one of self-help. Waltz identifies two ways in which the structure of the international system limits cooperation ...
[22]
A History of Anarchy, a Critique, and Apposite Alternatives
Apr 16, 2021 · In 1979, the publication of Kenneth Waltz's seminal Theory of International Politics propelled the concept of anarchy into the central ...
[23]
Cooperation under the Security Dilemma | World Politics
Jun 13, 2011 · The model of the Prisoner's Dilemma is used to demonstrate that cooperation is more likely when the costs of being exploited and the gains of exploiting others ...
[24]
[PDF] Realism and the Changing International System: Will China and ...
Conquest Rarely Pays. For defensive realists, conquest is rarely profitable. The reasons are many-fold: aggression and military buildup will provoke.
[25]
Defensive realism and the Concert of Europe - ResearchGate
Aug 9, 2025 · Defensive realism gives a better account of the Concert of Europe, because it combines structural realism with non-realist theories of state ...
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Soft Balancing against the United States - jstor
polar system encourages balancing but that buck-passing will make the proc- ess slow and uneven, then evidence of either balancing or buck-passing among the ...
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https://oxfordre.com/politics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-549
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Napoleon as a Military Commander: the Limitations of Genius
The strategic failures of the decisions to invade Spain and Russia and the inability to keep the other major European powers divided proved disastrous. The ...
[29]
Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited - jstor
Charles L. Glaser, "The Security Dilemma Revisited," World Politics, Vol. 50, No. 1 (October. 1997), pp. 171- ...
[30]
Assumption Testing: Multipolarity is more dangerous than bipolarity ...
Oct 2, 2023 · Kenneth Waltz, the originator of modern neorealism, argued that bipolarity is an inherently stable system, while multipolarity is unstable.Executive Summary · Introduction · Polarity, Reconsidered · Assessing Risk
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Neorealism (international relations) - Wikipedia
Neorealism or structural realism is a theory of international relations that emphasizes the role of power politics in international relations.Missing: evolution | Show results with:evolution
[32]
Neorealism's Logic and Evidence: When is a Theory Falsified?
Bipolar systems are more stable than multipolar systems; States engage in balancing behavior so that power becomes more or less equally divided among states ...
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Myths of Empire by Jack L. Snyder - Cornell University Press
Jack Snyder identifies recurrent myths of empire, describes the varieties of overextension to which they lead, and criticizes the traditional explanations ...Missing: defensive | Show results with:defensive
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Defensive Realism and the "New" History of World War I
Correspondence: Defensive Realism and the "New" History of World War I. READ FULL ARTICLE.Missing: elite post- Versailles
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(PDF) Dynamic Difference and the Democratic Peace - ResearchGate
... Defensive realism poses a ... This article revisits democratic peace theory, combining both institutional constraints and similarity-based arguments.<|separator|>
[36]
[PDF] Is Anybody Still a Realist? - Princeton University
Carr, Hans Morgenthau, and Kenneth Waltz sought to highlight the manipulation, accumulation, and balancing of power by sober unsentimental statesmen, focusing ...
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Japan's Quest for Power and World War II in Asia
especially oil and rubber — were not available within the ...
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The Evolution of Territorial Conquest After 1945 and the Limits of the ...
Jun 17, 2020 · Past studies conclude that a territorial integrity norm caused territorial conquest to decline sharply after 1945, virtually subsiding after 1975.
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[PDF] Offensive Realism, Defensive Realism, and the Role of Constraints
The results of this analysis indicate that while there is little support for either offensive or defensive realist theory across the entire period of study, ...Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
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[PDF] Mearsheimer, J.J. (2001). The tragedy of great power politics. New ...
Defensive realism, which is frequently referred to as "structural realism," came on the scene in the late 1970s with the appearance of Waltz's Theory of ...Missing: adequate | Show results with:adequate<|separator|>
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Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited
According to offensive realism, an anarchical international system strongly favors expansion. In contrast, defensive realism offers a more optimistic view: ...Missing: critique | Show results with:critique
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[PDF] Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited
Mar 15, 2025 · Below I discuss the four categories of realist theory and how the offensive-defensive dichotomy transcends the distinction between neorealism ...
[43]
[PDF] Reckless States and Realism - John Mearsheimer
Waltz is sometimes labeled a defensive realist, and why some say – to quote Randall. Schweller – that his theory has a 'status-quo bias'.15. This rather ...
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[PDF] The Offense-Defense Balance and War Since 1648
For security-seeking (not “greedy”) states, it seems likely that the defensive deployment equilibrium would pareto dominate the offensive deployment. 6. Page 8 ...
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Breaking out of the Security Dilemma: Realism, Reassurance, and ...
In the debate between offensive and defensive realism, a central issue is whether major powers can overcome the uncertainty that drives the security dilemma.
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A Realist Critique of the Newest Liberal Institutionalism - jstor
is more defensive than offensive in nature. In addition, realists find that defensive state positionality and the relative gains problem for cooperation ...
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The False Promise of International Institutions - jstor
Consider Hans Morgenthau and Kenneth Waltz, probably the two most influential realists over the past fifty years. Morgenthau maintains that states have a ...
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UN Security Council Failure to Mediate in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Sep 30, 2022 · The trajectory of the UNSC's dysfunctionality and systemic failure created the conditions that rendered it ineffective in the face of the 2022 ...
[49]
How realism, not liberal optimism, now explains the UN's predicament
Oct 17, 2025 · This, then, is the UN's enduring paradox. It is both indispensable and ineffective. It often fails, yet the world cannot do without it. The UN ...
[50]
[PDF] The Stability of the Bipolar World
Because bipolarity preceded a two-power nuclear competition, because in the absence of nuclear weapons destructive power would still be great, be- cause the ...
[51]
What was Bipolarity? - jstor
See Waltz, "The Stability of a Bipolar World." Page 6. 82 International Organization two hostile camps as a result of the cold war ...
[52]
[PDF] HEGEMONIC THREATS AND GREAT-POWER BALANCING
Finally, the great powers did not balance against Great Britain, the leading power in the world in the nineteenth century, or against the United States after ...<|separator|>
[53]
Why Europe Avoided Hegemony: A Historical Perspective on the - jstor
In this study, I set out to explain why Europe avoided hegemony. I argue that the character of state-society relations at the time of intensified geopolitical ...
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The Security Dilemma in Alliance Politics - jstor
Franco-Russian alliance before World War I, France had little intrinsic interest in Russia's conflicts with Austria in the Balkans, while Russia had little ...Missing: preparations | Show results with:preparations<|control11|><|separator|>
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Full article: The Security Dilemma: A Conceptual Analysis
Oct 8, 2009 · Jervis's various definitions and elaborations stressed seven aspects of the security dilemma: (1) the security dilemma is structural in origin; ...<|separator|>
[56]
The New History of World War I and What It Means for International ...
World War I looms large in international relations theory. The core concepts of defensive realism—the security dilemma, spiral model, and offense-defense ...Missing: alliances preparations
[57]
Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited
The terms “aggressive realism” (or offensive realism) and “defensive realism” originated in Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and ...<|separator|>
[58]
(PDF) Analysis of the Security Impact of AUKUS on the South China ...
Aug 6, 2025 · This paper employs a defensive realist lens to analyse AUKUS, examining its strategic motivations and regional security implications, ...
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Transition from hedging to balancing in Australia's China policy
Oct 26, 2023 · This article explores Australia's foreign policy transformation by conceptualising it as a transition from hedging to balancing against China.
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Assessing realist and liberal explanations for the Russo-Ukrainian war
Realists advance a different explanation for the war, primarily focused on Russian security fears in the face of NATO expansion and the prospect of Ukraine ...
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Grasping the Technological Peace: The Offense-Defense Balance ...
The offense-defense balance, determined by technology, suggests conflict is more likely when offense has advantage, and peace when defense has advantage.Missing: 21st | Show results with:21st
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The Offense-Defense Balance Rarely Changes — EA Forum
Dec 9, 2023 · But there is little historical evidence for large changes in the offense defense balance, even in response to technological revolutions.Missing: 21st | Show results with:21st
[63]
On Systemic Paradigms and Domestic Politics - MIT Press Direct
Nov 1, 2017 · According to Waltz, structural realism is a theory of international politics, not foreign policy: it explains systemic outcomes, not state ...Paradigms · Realism And Domestic... · Building On A Flawed...
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The Flaws of Defensive Realism and the False Promise of Re ...
Jul 17, 2023 · If the main issues at stake are indivisible (such as sacred territory), then diplomats can craft grand bargains that compensate disadvantaged ...Missing: explanatory shortcomings
[65]
The US Invasion of Iraq: Marxist and Defensive Realist Perspectives
May 30, 2016 · The main takeaway from Guns and Butter Once Again is the argument that government contracts for the invasion of Iraq and the Iraq War were ...
[66]
Grand Bargain or Bad Idea? U.S. Relations with China and Taiwan
Apr 1, 2016 · APPEASEMENT NOT PREFERRED IN THEORY OR PRACTICE. Glaser contrasts his defensive realist approach with structural realism and offensive realism ...
[67]
Balancing in Neorealism | International Security - MIT Press Direct
Oct 1, 2015 · When alliances have formed, great powers have generally doubted the reliability of their allies and of their opponents' allies. Thus neorealism ...A Neorealist Theory Of... · Arming, Imitation, And... · External Balancing...<|separator|>
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[PDF] Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy
balancing—but Restraint is a worthy contribution The book offers the most thorough and theoretically grounded rationale for offshore balancing to date,.
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The Case for Offshore Balancing | Foreign Affairs
Jun 13, 2016 · Offshore balancing is a realist grand strategy, and its aims are limited. Promoting peace, although desirable, is not among them. This is ...Missing: restraint | Show results with:restraint
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Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and ... - Brown University
Sep 1, 2021 · The cumulative cost of military intervention in the Iraq/Syria war zone has risen to $2.1 trillion since 9/11, and about $355 billion more has ...
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[PDF] Kenneth Waltz, “The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Better ...
Nuclear weapons and regional stability. Nuclear weapons are not likely to be used at home. Are they likely to be used abroad? As nuclear weapons spread, what ...
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Realism, Detente, and Nuclear Weapons - jstor
deterrence based on mutually assured destruction (MAD) is an inescapable fact of life for the superpowers. Deterrence is a system-wide condition. This.
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The Obama administration, defensive realism, and American foreign ...
Jun 30, 2020 · This article examines this claim and finds that Obama's policies were only partly consistent with defensive realism.
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Obama, Biden and realism in the Middle East | Responsible Statecraft
Jul 15, 2020 · His achievement of the nuclear deal with Iran was one of his policies most consistent with defensive realism: he believed that America's ...
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Adapting US Defense Strategy to Great-Power Competition
Mar 20, 2025 · American defense strategy must be predicated on a “deterrence by denial” approach vis-à-vis China in the Asia-Pacific theater and a buck-passing ...
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[PDF] Adapting US Defense Strategy to Great-Power Competition
Mar 20, 2025 · Defensive realists at places like the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft would prefer a decrease in spending, while conservative ...
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[PDF] Hans Morgenthau and the Iraq war: realism versus neo-conservatism
Neo-conservative theory – the Bush doctrine – is essentially Wilsonianism with teeth. The theory has an idealist strand and a power strand: Wilsonianism ...
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[PDF] Keeping the World "Off-Balance": Self-Restraint and US Foreign Policy
This chapter examines an important part of this puzzle, focusing on whether U.S. preponderance is likely to trigger a defensive backlash by ... 136 Stephen M.