The Radical Perspective 89by two other scholars, Steven Pinker and Joshua Goldstein. Pinker, a scholar of cogni-
tive and evolutionary psy chol ogy, argues that not only has war gone out of fashion,
but vio lence of all sorts is also disappearing. Goldstein’s analy sis shows that the fre-
quency and intensity of war between states has dropped precipitously in the past four
de cades, so much so that he has argued that “the war against war has been won.”^20
Liberalism, then, has provided the major counterpoint to realism. Although these
two theories differ in many re spects, they both assume that actors are basically ratio-
nal and that states are the most impor tant international actors, and both conceptualize
power in material terms.
the radical Perspective
Radicalism offers a third theoretical perspective on international relations. Whereas
agreement is widespread concerning the appropriate assignment of the liberal and real-
ist labels, no such agreement exists about the label radicalism, which for some carries
unavoidable negative connotations. We use the term today in its more neutral sense of
“a sharp departure from the norm,” and, in this case, one such norm is the state as a
necessary form of po liti cal association. Radicals, such as anarchists and Marxists,
problematize the state itself. Their idea that the state is the prob lem is part of what sets
them so dramatically apart from realists and liberals.
The writings of Karl Marx (1818–83) are fundamental to all radical thought, even
though his theories did not directly address many con temporary issues. Marx based
his theory of the evolution of capitalism on economic class conflict: the capitalism of
nineteenth- century Eu rope emerged out of the earlier feudal system. According to
Marx, in the cap i tal ist system, private interests control labor and market exchanges,
creating bondages from which certain classes try to free themselves. Note that Marx
and his partner Friedrich Engels borrowed the notion of “class” from Eu rope’s social
classes (upper classes, the aristocracy; middle classes, guildsmen; and lower classes, peas-
ants and laborers) but re imagined them as two economic classes: a bourgeoisie—
which owns all means of production— and a proletariat— exploited labor. A clash
inevitably arises between the controlling, cap i tal ist bourgeois class and the controlled
proletariat. A new socialist order is born from this violent clash, which the proletariat
must inevitably win after a period of revolutionary strug gle.^21
A group of core beliefs unites those espousing a radical, mostly Marxist, perspec-
tive. The first set of radical beliefs is found in historical analy sis. Whereas for most
realists and liberals, history provides vari ous data points from which to glean appro-
priate generalizations, radicals see historical analy sis as revealing necessary outcomes.
Of special relevance is the history of the production pro cess. During the evolution of
the production pro cess from feudalism to capitalism, new patterns of social relations