Essay On Realism And Liberalism

There are three main schools of thought in International Relations and they are realism, liberalism, and constructivism. Liberalism is the paradigm that in short, holds the belief that emphasizes the importance of the international institutions that would serve to check relations with other international state actors. Realism stems from the notion that in this anarchic international stage, each state is out to better itself and the only way to survive is to gain more power. Constructivism is a term that has risen to prominence recently. It claims that people are at the heart of what gives the state power and it is the people’s social norms that determine the behaviors and interests of states. With that general synopsis, if we were to apply …show more content…
Obama has been a divisive leader with both sides of issues he talks about being dissatisfied with his actions. As Goldberg mentions, “Obama, ordinarily a preternaturally confident man, was looking for validation, and trying to devise ways to explain his change of heart, both to his own aides and to the public” (Goldberg 2016, 75). This quote from “The Obama Doctrine” is speaking on President Obama’s lack of enforcement of the red line. He drew boundaries saying that this was to be the final thread in hopes to prevent Bashar al-Assad from going further in his actions during the Syrian Civil War but when the time came, commander-in-chief Obama did not act. This is not to be interpreted as a sign of weakness nor as a sign of power but it was a calculated decision that he made based on what the people around him felt at the moment. Being that constructivism itself can be a confusing term because it is so broad and as a result may seem hard to disprove, to understand it, we must contrast it with the other schools of …show more content…
His ability to be fluid in his decision-making mentality grants him the freedom to do what he sees best fitting encourages an epistemology that is arguably better than the one of realist and liberalist thought. While the latter two are set on their epistemologies, constructivism is fluid with the relationship societies have with international relations. Constructivist thought is therefore worthier of being the school of thought that shapes international politics because it takes into consideration the social components of domestic relations and the individual is able to accommodate their beliefs to still fit under the constructivist model; qualities that realism and liberalism both