Offensive Realism
Offensive realism is an international relations theory best described in John Mearsheimer’s book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics; the theory explains why nation-states engage in warfare and intend to capture and control more significant resources.
International relations itself is used to explain why nation-states behave the way that they do. The theory of offensive realism was that nation-states would do everything possible to survive, which means wars of conquest.
The nation-state as we understand it today was pioneered during and after the French Revolution in 1789. The nation-state was created by identifying a landmass with one particular ethnic group.
In France’s case, the French or people who considered themselves French in the 18th century, were particularly repellent in French cities, which comprised around 20% of the population.
The preceding five French republics and two Napoleonic empires expanded the meaning of French to incorporate the territories we consider contemporary France; this meant the destruction of all minority nationalities, such as Britons.
The Britons exist in Brittany, and they were descendants of the Welsh people who used to exist before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of the British Isles during the 5th to 8th centuries.
Briton culture has now been destroyed in France, and other regional identities developed in southern France to focus on national unity. The system created still exists today, with the Fifth French Republic not recognising any people who do not identify themselves or don’t consider themselves French.
Therefore, the French government doesn’t collect data or fund integration programs regarding recent immigration from Algeria, a former French colony, or other non-French people.
For the French, France belongs to the French, and the French culture is how their society works and how the French have chosen to be. This is the archetypical nation-state adopted throughout Europe in the 19th century and the rest of the world.
Anarchy
According to a realistic perspective, the international political system is anarchy, meaning that nation-states have no National Health Service to call upon or any outside support in the event of economic and other national failures.
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(In international relations theory, anarchy is the idea that the world lacks supreme authority or sovereignty. In a lawless state, no hierarchically superior, coercive power can resolve disputes, enforce law, or order the system of international politics.)
Therefore, if the nation-state is to survive, it must become a regional power or seek to dominate the international global system by achieving the same kind of power that the United States of America currently possesses.
In this context, the theory of offensive realism puts forward the idea that nation-states will continue to secure resources and territory to become one of the strongest players within the international political system.
This theory can explain Russia’s continuous expansion of its territories since the 16th century to secure invasion routes into Russia.
In contemporary politics, the Russian political leader Vladimir Putin described the destruction of the Soviet Union as a strategic disaster and the disaster unmediated in Russian history due to Russia losing control of all the invasion rounds into the Russian heartland.
This is why, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has been fighting 15 wars.
Offensive realism can explain why Germany, first in World War I from 1914 to 1918 and then again in World War II, from 1939 to 1945, attempted to become a global power by defeating the other great powers in the global political system.
According to the theory of offensive realism, the reason for this was Germany’s opportunity, where it was most optimal to attempt to become the global superpower or hegemony.
Again, this happened in France from 1793 until 1815, when the French First and Second Republic and the First French Empire attempted to conquer and dominate the European continent.
During this time, the French were the most populous nation in Europe, larger than Russia, which had over 25 million, and France, which had over 26 million. In context, the British only had a population of around 8 million.
Using offensive realism theory, the French had this opportunity and one opportunity to attempt to become the global superpower, dominate the political system, and amass the resources to maintain its survival.
