Survey Says: Top International Relations Philosophy results, Politics Survey Selectsmart.com

The top 9 International Relations Philosophy results of 252 participants.

Percentages indicate the frequency of the self-selected participants' top results for International Relations Philosophy.

30.6%

Classical Liberalism (Definition): Human natural state is good not evil, this is because wicked behavior stems from bad institutions. All people should and desire to be free, peace is the natural order and is self-reinforcing. War is not inevitable, but can be averted. This is because wars are created by unnatural power elites. Peace is self-reinforcing. Due to this free democratic states are good and fair, and help reinforce the order of peace. However, autocratic states are immoral and are disrupters of peace. Therefore nation-states and statesmen should and must push for democratization and liberalization around the world using open trade and international organizations. Democracies do not attack each other. Theorists: St. Thomas Aquinas, Jeremy Bentham, Henry George, Henry Grotius, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Robert Nozick, Thomas Paine, and Adam Smith. Statesmen: The Anti-Federalists, Benjamin Franklin, William Gladstone, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Thomas Babington Macaulay, James Madison, James Monroe, David Ricardo, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thaddeus Stevens and Woodrow Wilson

13.1%

Constructivism (Definition): One person's hero is another person's villain in the international system. There is no one "true" reality, as there are multiple social dimensions involved in the anarchic system. The international system is determined and shaped by norms, rules, language, and values. Individuals can focus and shape the norms of foreign affairs. While the international system is anarchic, the world is what individuals make of it. Theorists: Martha Finnemore, David Hume, Nicholas Onuf, and Alexander Wendt. Statesmen: There are no real "constructivist" statesmen in the international system, at least not yet. This is because each statesmen desires to be a shaper of norms.

11.9%

Neoliberalism (Definition): The international system is anarchistic, which leads to states becoming fearful and uncertain in a world with no world police. This can lead to international cooperation to be problematic and challenging. In order to ensure peace as the natural order and international cooperation amongst states, democratization of states are more advantageous than having rogue autocracies. In order to secure nation-states borders, statesmen should make sure other states are democratic, free-trading, and are participating in international organizations. Theorists: Milton Friedman, Thomas Friedman, Francis Fukuyama, F.A. Von Hayek, John Stuart Mill, John Maynard Keynes, Robert Reich, Robert Cohen, and John Rawls. Statesmen: Kofi Annan, Madeline Albright, Tony Blair, Michael Bloomberg, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George C. Marshall, Emmanuel Macron, Adlai Stevenson, and Harry S. Truman.

10.7%

Neorealism (Definition): States shape the international order. This is because they pursue power because of an anarchic international order. This leads to war having complex reasons and all states having the potential to possess some military power. This leads to no state can ever guarantee the intentions of another and the principle goal of all states is survival. This is because all states are rational, and know they act in a self-help world. Due to this states fear each other. While these are the core assumptions of the neorealism, Neorealists tend to divide into Offensive and Defensive Neorealism. Offensive Neorealists believe that states should maximize their share of world power, hegemony is only way to ensure true security, and that balancing of power does not always occur naturally. It has to be forced by powerful states, and that conquest does pay. Defensive Neorealists believe that states should not maximize their share of world power, balancing occurs if one power leaps for hegemony, there are only alliances of convenience, overextension occurs and that conquest does not pay. Theorists: Michael Oakshott, John Jacque Rousseau, John Mueller, Kenneth Waltz, Stephen Walt, John Mearshiemer. Statesmen: George H.W. Bush, Jacques Chirac, John Foster Dulles, Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Collin Powell, William Howard Taft and George Washington.

8.7%

Classical Realism (Definition): Politics is governed by objective laws with their roots in human nature. Through objective laws, one can observe that humans beings are inherently bad. Due to this, nation-states cannot trust one another completely because of the selfish and egoistic nature of man. While interest is to be universally defined as power, the meaning and content of interests may shift and change. Since there is no strong international police force to enforce peace, strong leaders are needed domestically to insure the peace. Due to the international system lacks an equivalent leader, this leads to states acting selfishly. Since the international system is anarchic and not all states have the same ideological form of government, moral aspirations of a single community or state may not be universally valid or shared. This leads to states' main drive in international relations to be the emotions of power and fear, there is moral significance of political action. In order to achieve an object view of international affairs, nation states and statesmen/stateswomen must reject moralist and legalistic led approaches to foreign affairs. Theorists: Aristotle, St. Augustine, Edmund Burke, E.H. Car, Carl von Clausewitz, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Hobbes, George F. Kennan, Henry Kissinger, Niccolo Machiavelli, Klemens von Metternich, Hans Morgenthau, Reinhold Niebhur, Polybius, Thucydides, and Max Weber. Statesmen: John Adams Otto Von Bismarck, Benjamin Disraeli, The Federalist Party, Charles De Gaulle, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Kissinger, Klemens von Metternich, Richard Nixon, Vladimir Putin, Cardinal Richelieu, and Theodore Roosevelt.

7.9%

Feminism (Definition): War is a creation mostly made by men, not women. Therefore women are more likely to be peaceful then men. Due to this, security is not merely the absence of war. Security includes freedom from all kinds of oppression and suffering such as rape, domestic violence. slavery, ecological destruction and poverty. Men are more likely to be aggressive and warlike, while women are more likely to be diplomatic and peaceful. Theorists: Betty Friedan, Naomi Klein, Eleanor Marx, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Statesmen: Jane Adams, Madeline Albright, Elizabeth Evatt, Catherine The Great, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

6.7%

The English School (Definition): The best states are peaceful and democratic, as well as moderately egalitarian. The international society must protect itself as an international system based on principles of inter-state relations, strengthen independence of international society members, supporting peace, providing a standard of social life, respect the principle of reciprocity and states must guarantee stability of property which is stated in the mutual acknowledge of sovereignty. Powerful nation-states must stop attacking countries for oil and focus on larger threats. beating up weak nation states that never hurt anyone is a grave threat to promoting democracy. Theorists: Hedley Bull, Barry Buzan, Robert Jackson, and Nicholas Wheeler. Statesmen: William Jennings Bryan, Howard Dean, Eugene V. Debs, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.

5.2%

Marxism (Definition): Human beings are naturally good, but are corrupted by capitalism, racism, and imperialism. This leads to capitalist countries being either false democracies or outright fascist states. Therefore Communist and Socialist countries are more just and less dangerous. Capitalism and racism are evil institutions spreading Western hegemony and propping up decadent empires. These ideas inferior ideas and concepts have survived due to powerful imperialist states shifting their exploitation to colonial populations and compelled them to sell raw goods for cheap. Then nation states coerced them to buy manufactured goods, which alleviated pressure upon their own working classes. This led to European states become middle class, and colonies become primarily working class. This process derailed the natural progression of human evolution. In order to achieve the end of history, historical processes, street protests, and world revolution will bring about a more humane world. Theorists: Antonio Gramsci, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, Robert Owen, and Leon Trotsky. Statesmen: Clement Attlee, Jeremy Corbyn, Che Guevara, Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx, Marcos, Theotonio dos Santos, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Immanuel Wallerstein, Mao Zedong.

5.2%

Neoconservatism (Definition): In the international system, nation-states act through civilizational and cultural means for their own advancement. Therefore nation-states must spread democratic institutions and markets to other countries in order to make them more civilized. This must also include also include a very strong military establishment, and democracy can and must be used a tool of diplomacy and war. Ultimately democratic states with align with each other, although some of their allies may be non-democratic. Theorists: David Brooks, Max Boot, David Frum, Jonah Goldberg, Christopher Hitchens, Donald Kagan, Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol, Irving Kristol, Michael Ledeen, Leo Strauss and Condolezza Rice. Statesmen: Shinzo Abe, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, David Cameron, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Nathan Glazer, Andrew Jackson, Scoop Jackson, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Joe Lieberman, Theresa May, John McCain, Condolezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Paul Wolfowitz.