Conflict may seem costly to all parties involved, winners and losers alike, but what matters for natural selection is whether fighting, despite its costs, can bring net benefits to Darwinian fitness. State as primary actor 2. States do not cooperate, except during temporary alliances, but constantly seek to diminish their competitors power and to enhance their own. Some of these date from the split with our last nonhuman primate ancestor at the beginning of the Pliocene, around 5 million years ago. Dominic Johnson is professor of international relations at the University of Oxford. Pomeroy, Caleb Note that the table captures key patterns, not universal behavior. However, because anarchy is a problem both in nature and in international politics, it is no coincidence at all. This is not to deny that they miscalculate from time to time. We reiterate the point above, however, that it is the context of our own evolution as hunter-gatherers in the socio-ecological conditions of the Pleistocene era that offers the crucial evidence on human behavioral adaptations. We do not, however, need to rely on mere analogies linking animal and human behavior. The strength of dominance hierarchies in humans is debated and varies empirically, but such hierarchies are always evident in some form or other. Who wants power? In other species, males cannot coerce females, but the females are choosy about with whom they mate, leading to selection pressures for males to demonstrate or signal their quality as attractive partners. In 2003 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. and This insight has important implications for international politics because it suggests that we can potentially createat least in principleenvironments that take account of our human nature so we can turn them to our advantage, such as designing institutions that elicit cooperative rather than conflictual tendencies.Reference Keohane164,Reference Stein165. ABSTRACT -. However, offensive realism is one of the most compelling current theories for explaining major phenomena across the history of international politics, such as great power rivalries and the origins of war. Second, critics of offensive realism point to countering factors such as the democratic peace or international institutions. Classical realists (such as Thucydides, E.H. Carr, Arnold Wolfers, and Hans Morgenthau) and offensive realists share the assumption that states seek to maximize power - that states are relentless seekers of power and influence.Specifically, for classical realists "nations expand their political interests abroad when their relative power increases . Huda, Mirza Sadaqat Total loading time: 0 In 2007 Mearsheimer coauthored with Stephen M. Walt a best-selling but highly controversial book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (2007). Although it is not our intention to resolve offensive realisms theoretical lacunae, an evolutionary account can help to explain them. The fifth assumption is that states are rational actors, which is to say they are capable of coming up with sound strategies that maximize their prospects for survival. The impressive design, by Tom Piper, comprises two very tall ladders, and . In human history and prehistory, other human groups were commonly the most dangerous threat in the environment, and the ingroup/outgroup bias is likely to have helped the ingroup remain cohesive, avoid and be wary of outgroups, solve the collective action problem in emergencies, and kill outsiders.136,137,Reference Tooby, Cosmides and Hgh-Olesen138, Second, the ingroup/outgroup bias offers a rapid heuristic to weigh the various threats when encountering other humans. This story might have come from any number of bloody human conflicts around the world. We recognize that a challenge to the theory of offensive realism is the empirical mix of cooperation and conflict in the real world. The anarchic state of the international system means that states cannot be certain of other states' intentions and their security, thus prompting them to . Mearsheimers other works included Conventional Deterrence (1983), Liddell Hart and the Weight of History (1988), Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics (2011), The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities (2018), and scores of articles published in academic journals. We invoke anarchy in all situations in the table because, while our core argument is that evolved dispositions (egoism, dominance, groupishness) give rise to offensive realist behavior today even in the absence of anarchy, these evolved dispositions will be more prominent and influential where regulation is lax. A couple of times a month, groups of males would venture stealthily and deliberately into the periphery of their neighbors territory and, if the invaders found males wandering there alone, they brutally beat them to death. "useRatesEcommerce": false John Mearsheimer's Theory Of Offensive Realism - Bartleby Eric Labs captured this logic in his argument that, a strategy that seeks to maximize security through a maximum of relative power is the rational response to anarchy.38. In 1982 he became a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he was appointed the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science in 1996. (Examples include the spread of Christianity or Islam at the expense of traditional religions over the last 2,000 years.) The fact that the five assumptions are instrumental to the theory of Mearsheimer is undeniable. Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Stjrnmlafrideild/Department of Political Science, Hskli slands/University of Iceland, Reference Wilson, Boesch, Fruth, Furuichi, Gilby, Hashimoto, Hobaiter, Hohmann, Itoh, Koops, Lloyd, Matsuzawa, Mitani, Mjungu, Morgan, Muller, Mundry, Nakamura, Pruetz, Pusey, Riedel, Sanz, Schel, Simmons, Waller, Watts, White, Wittig, Zuberbuhler and Wrangham, Reference Sidanius, Kurzban, Sears, Huddy and Jervis, Reference Mirazn Lahr, Rivera, Power, Mounier, Copsey, Crivellaro, Edung, Maillo Fernandez, Kiarie, Lawrence, Leakey, Mbua, Miller, Muigai, Mukhongo, Van Baelen, Wood, Schwenninger, Grn, Achyuthan, Wilshaw and Foley, Reference Milinski, Parker, Krebs and Davies, Reference Ellis, Hershberger, Field, Wersinger, Pellis, Hetsroni and Geary, Reference Taylor, Klein, Lewis, Gruenewald, Gurung and Updegraff, Reference Flack, Girvan, de Waal and Krakauer, Reference Tooby, Cosmides and Hgh-Olesen, Reference Mech, Adams, Meier, Burch and Dale, Reference wrangham, Pilbeam, Galdikas, Briggs, Sheeran, Shapiro and Goodall, Reference Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren and Hall, Reference Baumeister, Boden, Geen and Donnerstein, Lethal intergroup aggression leads to territorial expansion in wild chimpanzees, Lethal aggression in Pan is better explained by adaptive strategies than human impacts, Intergroup aggression in chimpanzees and humans, Missing the Revolution: Darwinism for Social Scientists, Darwins Conjecture: The Search for General Principles of Social and Economic Evolution, The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, Darwin and International Relations: On the Evolutionary Origins of War and Ethnic Conflict, Evolutionary approaches to political psychology, The origin of politics: An evolutionary theory of political behavior, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, The Peace of Illusions: International Relations Theory and American Grand Strategy in the PostCold War Era, Beyond victory: Offensive realism and the expansion of war aims, Realism and Americas rise: A review essay, The false promise of international institutions, Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous TribesThe Yanomamo and the Anthropologists, World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations, Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya, International relations as a social science. Of particular note regarding the impact of dominance on human behavior are the roles of both phylogeny (a species ancestral lineage) and ecology (its adaptations to local conditions). Individuals may follow generalized decision rules, but these rules give rise to different behaviors in different contexts. Behavior varies considerably, just as standard offensive realism predicts for states, and countervailing forces would sometimes mitigate power-maximization strategiesalthough the very need for and difficulties of those countervailing forces help to demonstrate the fact that offensive realist behavior remains an underlying problem. PDF 241-256 IRE 104637 - John Mearsheimer This collective benefit points to the special and much more significant role of anarchy at a higher levelanarchy between groups. He also frequently participated in public debates by contributing op-ed articles to the The New York Times and other national newspapers. This strategy was clearly not an option for critical resources, such as food and water. Unsatisfied with military life, he decided to pursue graduate studies rather than become a career officer. So, while the natural sciences recognize the remarkable sociality and mutual dependence exhibited by the human species, these sciences are also unified in recognizing the selective advantages of self-interest and power. For example, Wrangham recounts that among the Inuit of the Arctic, unfamiliar men would normally be killed even before questions were asked.139, Such wariness of individuals from other groups is paralleled among animals. Likewise, many other religious and utopian theorists attribute egoism, dominance, and ingroup/outgroup bias to special, or at least changeable, circumstances. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that states behave as offensive realists predict not just because of anarchy in the modern international system but also because of the legacy of our evolution. Behavior intention models, for example, assume people have: a linear time orientation (the future has meaning), an internal locus of control, and the ability to think in probabilistic terms. The optimistic message of our argument is that understanding human nature will make efforts toward international institutions, democracy, and cooperation more effective. However, there is, of course, considerable variation in egoism, dominance, and ingroup/outgroup bias. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Mearsheimer, The University of Chicago - Biography of John J. Mearsheimer. The Yanomamo among whom I lived were constantly worried about attacks from their neighbors and constantly lived in fear of this possibility. Evolutionary theory makes three major contributions to the offensive realist theory of international politics: (1) a novel ultimate cause of the primary traits of offensive realist behavior (self-help, power maximization, and fear); (2) an extension of offensive realism to any domain in which human actors compete for power (e.g., civil war, ethnic conflict, or domestic politics); and (3) an explanation for why individual leaders themselves, not just states, behave as they do. This idea is important because, if individuals are working for the good of the group rather than only for themselves, then groups composed of more-cooperative individuals may do better than less-cooperative groups, meaning that genuinely altruistic traits (sacrificing ones own interests for the good of others) can spread in the population.Reference Wilson184,Reference Wilson and Sober185 However, there are several reasons why this possibility does not affect our argument. Indeed, the competition for mates is subject to a special type of evolutionary selection processsexual selection, as opposed to standard natural selection. The constraints on biological group selection, such as significant differences in a given trait between groups and low migration, are relaxed in the case of cultural traits, since groups actively promote cultural distinctions and have many mechanisms to prevent flows between them.Reference Richerson and Boyd190 Therefore, it is not just likely but quite apparent that many cultural traits have evolved out of group-level competitionsometimes referred to as memes, as opposed to genes. First, the group could eliminate or reduce consumption to make the resource last. Render date: 2023-05-01T12:27:54.717Z When the stakes are high enough, individuals as well as states all too easily revert to egoism, dominance, and fear. Sexual selection is typically responsible for the hierarchical nature of group-living animal species, including humans, as males fight for rank and the reproductive benefits in brings. As we show in the next section, competition between groups is especially significant for human evolution, and for international politics, precisely because it is at the intergroup level where anarchy reigns supreme and is much harder to suppress. Nevertheless, overwhelming evidence shows that people also behave in ways that can be predicted from the biological knowledge outlined above. When the stakes are high and ones livelihood or survival is threatened, the traits of egoism, dominance, and fear of outgroups come to the forea conclusion we can draw from any number of conflicts in the Balkans, Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, India, and elsewhere. Mearsheimer's main innovation is his theory of 'offensive realism' that seeks to re-formulate Kenneth Waltz's structural realist theory to explain from a structural point of departure the sheer . These strategies are not unique to humans and, in fact, characterize a much broader trend in behavior among mammals as a wholeespecially primatesas well as many other major vertebrate groups, including birds, fish, and reptiles. After graduating from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1970, Mearsheimer served for five years as an officer in the air force, rising to the rank of captain. The strategic allocation of resources to others often advances ones own Darwinian fitness. 1-49; Robert Gilpin, War and Like most international relations scholars of his generation, Mearsheimer was deeply influenced by Kenneth Waltz, the founder of the school of international relations known as neorealism. or Kenneth Waltz's structural realism. These types of adaptations not only consume precious time and energy but can also decrease survival in other, nonreproductive domains of life (for example, the plumage of male peacocks limits their ability to fly). Utah's Office of Licensing, which provides oversight to youth residential treatment centers, has conducted 341 investigations in the past five years at Provo Canyon School's four campuses. As we have stressed, the human traits of egoism, dominance, and ingroup/outgroup bias are adaptations to the ecological conditions prevalent in human evolution. Humans and chimpanzees shared some features of their socio-ecological environment, such as spatially and temporally variable food resources, which required that individuals leave the protection of the group to forage in open or bordering areas, often alone or in small groups, subjecting them to greater risks of predation or ambush from conspecifics.Reference wrangham, Pilbeam, Galdikas, Briggs, Sheeran, Shapiro and Goodall167 In contrast, the ecology of bonobos has been relatively benign. We thank Robert Jervis for bringing this point to our attention. Major realist theories and their predictions. In fact, he was highly critical of the Iraq War (200311) and what he saw as an attempt by the United States to police the world. Table2 illustrates the range of domains to which an evolutionary theory of offensive realism applies. Offensive realism based on evolutionary theory makes the same predictions for state behavior, but the ultimate causal mechanism is different: human evolution in the anarchic, dangerous, and competitive conditions of the late-Pliocene and Pleistocene eras. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Is John Mearsheimer right that his five assumptions make it All anarchy does is remove constraints on pursuing such behavior. Our theory is also unlimited in domain, explaining behavior wherever there are human actors and weak external constraints on their actions, from ancestral human groups, ethnic conflict, and civil wars to domestic politics, free markets, and international relations. (PDF) The Rational Actor Assumption in Structural Realism - ResearchGate In general, humans cooperate where we can (e.g., within groups or within alliances deriving mutual benefit), but the anarchy of international relations is a hostile environment that, like the one in which humans evolved, tends to trigger our egoism, dominance, and group bias. Note that we did not pick the traits of egoism, dominance, and ingroup/outgroup bias out of a hat. Second, we introduce key evolutionary concepts that explicate the human behaviors upon which offensive realism depends. Second, even if group selection does occur, it can only increase altruism within groups. Instead, we can make more concrete predictions about how humans tend to think and act in different conditions, based on new scientific knowledge about human cognition and behavior, and in particular a greater understanding of the social and ecological context in which human brains and behaviors evolved. While biological group selection among humans is unlikely, the selection of cultural traits among groups is possible. (PDF) Effects of Face Masks on Emotion Interpretation in Socially In this section, we have presented standard biological arguments that egoism, dominance, and ingroup/outgroup bias are deeply rooted behavioral adaptations common among mammals in general and primate species in particular. Of course, cooperation and helping behaviors are common in nature, but such behaviors persist only where they help the genes causing that behavior to spread. Incorporating ideas from the life sciences into the social sciencesrich in the study of culture and institutions and other influences on political behaviorwill help scholars base their theories in rigorous scientific principles and subject their assumptions to empirical testing.Reference Wilson20,21 Our approach draws heavily on evolutionary anthropology, which recognizes that human behavior is in large part the result of evolved cognitive, physiological, and behavioral mechanisms designed to solve recurrent problems confronted by our ancestors in the environment in which we evolved. The first assumption is that there is anarchy in the international system, which means that there is no hierarchically superior, coercive power that can guarantee limits on the behavior of states (Mearsheimer 2001, 30). In Matt Ridleys words, to prefer group selection over individual selection is to prefer genocide over murder.Reference Ridley188 Group selection can promote cooperation and altruism, but only within the group. Of the many features of hunter-gatherer society and organization, we focus on intergroup relations, since these are most relevant to the behaviors associated with international relations. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. We are positively biased toward our own groups and negatively biased toward other groups. Our point is therefore not that humans are naturally good or naturally bad at all times and in all circumstances, but rather that people have evolved mechanisms for egoism, dominance, and groupishness that are activated and amplified in certain settings. While this may be true in western, industrialized . Will a male from the outgroup present competition for mates, or will his presence threaten the ingroup males position in the extended family or group? Leaders are forced to maximize power when perhaps they would rather cooperate or share power with others. As we have been at pains to explain, much of this variation stems from contextual differences (behavioral ecology)that is, a given individuals behavior can change across circumstances. In addition to fighting over resources, we can now fight over ideology as well. Moreover, theorists of offensive realism argue that states should behave this way because it is the best way to survive in the anarchy of the international system. In Waltzs model the absence of an authority above states (the condition of anarchy) forces them to make alliances in order to contain the threats posed by rival powers. Second, the evolutionary approach helps make a given theorys assumptions about human nature explicit, exposing them to empirical validation. Reading the literature of offensive realism can be hauntingly analogous to reading ethnographies of warfare among preindustrial societies such as the Yanomamo in the Amazon, the Mae Enga in New Guinea, or the Shuar in the Andes. The abundance of intergroup threats, which cause the fear and uncertainty Mearsheimer identifies, are deeply rooted in human evolution under conditions of anarchy over millions of years, and not just in the anarchy of the modern state system in recent history. As formulated by Mearsheimer, the theory of offensive realism is a type of neorealism because the principal causes of state behavior are rooted in the anarchic international system. The central issue raised by our theory is what causes states to behave as offensive realists predict. First, offensive realism fails to explain why costly wars sometimes occur against the interests of the states that initiate them. PDF JohnJ.Mearsheimer:anoffensiverealistbetween geopoliticsandpower - Springer
Carolina Hurricanes Club Level Seats,
Clervie Ngounoue Parents,
Edna Korth Daughters,
Crawley Town Wages,
Paula Stone Williams Surgery,
Articles M