Elif Okan
17 September 20
Out of the theories we learned about I believe that liberalism is better and easier to believe than realism. I think that the United States should use the liberal approach rather than the realist approaches. While there is no wrong approach I believe the liberal one is the best out of realism, liberalism, —Constructivism, and —Feminism. Instead of talking about all four theories, I am going to compare the liberalism and realism theories. I personally believe that in order to do well you need to be able to cooperate with others and there are some things that no one should do even if it is not a written law or if you live in another country. Countries should be able to help each other and form allies when needed instead of trying to take over and dominate each other. That’s part of why we have institutions in place all over the world like the United Nations, the European Union, etc. We should be able to exchange with and help each other so we both gain something to help both states/counties.
An example of this is terrorists. It would be easy for the United States to say that it does not involve us so there is no reason why we should get involved and we should just leave it to the other states to handle. While yes the United States went after Al Qaeda because of 9/11 so it did affect us, it does not have to be a reason for us to claim way against terror like we did. This is especially true when you look at the amount of people that died in 9/11 as compared to other things. While a lot of people died from the attack it was not as much as how many people die from other things over a year. After the United States did get involved Al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US Special Forces which greatly affected Al Qaeda greatly. If the United States choose to do nothing because terrorists in general does not affect the United States greatly, then they never would have killed Osama bin Laden.
Another example of why liberalism is better than realism is North Korea. The United States itself does not really have to worry about North Korea attacking us or bombing us because they are so far away. The countries that have to worry about North Korea are countries close by like South Korea or Japan. A realist would say not to worry about North Korea since they are not a threat to us. A liberal would say that we should be worried about North Korea and try to make sure they do not try and bomb other countries close by like South Korea or Japan. If North Korea actually did bomb countries close by like South Korea or Japan then both the United States and the United Nation would not sit still and just let North Korea go saying that it is not their problem since they are not directly involved but would instead take action against North Korea. North Korea knows this which is why it is likely that they have not done anything even though they have threated to bomb other countries and launched two missiles over Japan and into the ocean recently. North Korea has done stuff like this in the past too but nothing happened in the end. Now if there was no United Nations and each country was on its own and North Korea knew this then the way they act could have differ and they could have caused serious harm by now. I believe taking the liberal approach over the realist approach was and is better for the Unites States and other countries. North Korea and terrorists are just two examples of why.
Taking the liberal approach over the realist approach also means that the United States does not struggle for power trying to be and remain dominant over others and instead can trade easier with others. If the United States was zero sum and only cared about the fact that if they traded with say China than China would gain more and be ahead of us, then they could not trade. Instead with a liberal approach they can see if the trade deal is good for them personally instead of comparing themselves with others and trade which could benefit them. That’s how the United States and China can trade with each other.
Overall, I would say that the liberalism theory is better than the realist theory or the —Constructivism theory or the Feminism theory for the reasons listed above.
Elif makes a great point of why one should pick liberalism over realism. He decided to only compare two of the four theories, which made it simpler and clearer to read. He makes a good point when he talks about trade in relations to international politics and how a liberal perspective of trade would benefit all parties involved. He also talks about the struggle for power and how liberalism would help countries gain or lose power.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rita. I thought it was be easier to compare only two of the theories instead of all four of the theories we learned about in class too which is why I did it this way.
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