82 CHAPTER THREE ■ InternatIonal relatIons theorIes
balance- of- power world, a state’s survival depends on its having more power than other
states. Thus, all power, and gains in power, is viewed in relative rather than absolute terms.^10
Neorealists are also concerned with cheating. States may be tempted to cheat on
agreements so they can gain a relative advantage over other states. Fear that other states
will renege on existing cooperative agreements is especially potent in the military realm,
in which changes in weaponry might result in a major shift in the balance of power.
Self- interest provides a power ful incentive for one state to take advantage of another.
The awareness that such incentives exist, combined with states’ rational desire to pro-
tect their own interests, tends to preclude long- term cooperation among states. As the
popu lar paraphrase of Britain’s Lord Palmerston (1784–1865) puts it, “Nations have
no permanent friends or allies, only permanent interests.”
Scholars have developed other interpretations of realism as well. Although neoreal-
ism simplifies the classical realist theory and focuses on a few core concepts (system
structure and balance of power), other reinterpretations add increased complexity to
realism. In War and Change in World Politics, Robert Gilpin offers one such reinter-
pretation. Accepting the realist assumptions that states are the principal actors, deci-
sion makers are basically rational, and the international system structure plays a key
role in determining power, Gilpin examines 2,400 years of history, finding that “the
distribution of power among states constitutes the principal form of control in every
international system.”^11 What Gilpin adds is the notion of dynamism, of history as a
series of cycles— cycles of the birth, expansion, and demise of dominant powers.
t heory In BrIef realIsm / neorealIsm
Key actors States (most power ful matter most)V Iew of the IndIVIdual Insecure, selfish, power- seekingV Iew of the state Insecure, selfish, unitary, power-of rationality^ seeking as evidence^V Iew of the InternatIonal
systemAnarchic (implies perpetual threat of war); more stable
as distribution of power approaches unipolarityBel Iefs aBout changePossibility of perpetual peace logically precluded;
emphasis shifted to managing the frequency and
intensity of warm ajor theorIsts Thucydides, Saint Augustine, Hobbes, Morgenthau, Waltz, Gilpin, Mearsheimer