Billy Bob
THE WORLD THROUGH AN INDEPENDENT LEFT LENS
Guest Editorial
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Mearsheimer cheerfully holding forth on his realpolitik before a congenial audience.
Let’s begin with some necessary context. Most readers are going to be familiar with John Mearsheimer. He is a widely celebrated critic of Western diplomacy. His interviews and lectures are among the most popular on social media and he travels regularly, across the globe, sharing his framework on international relations with large audiences who typically hold him in extremely high regard even when they don’t agree with him. As a critic who has been somewhat marginalized by the establishment press, he still manages to get invited to many mainstream platforms including powerful think tanks, prestigious universities, the biggest podcasts, and other respected international venues. Ultimately, Mearsheimer asserts that his theory of “great power politics” is the most authoritative way to understand “how the world works.”
Mearsheimer is famous for his theory on international relations known as “Realism”. Here he is, in his own words describing his theory:
“Realism is a theory of international politics that privileges power. It says power is the currency of international relations and states are mainly concerned, not exclusively but mainly concerned, about the balance of power and they want to maximize the amount of power they have. The best situation is to be a hegemon in the system, now why is that the case? The argument that I make is that if a state operates in a world where there's no higher authority that can rescue it if it gets in trouble and one can never know what the intentions of another state are today and certainly cannot know what their intentions will be in the future and that rival state may be very powerful in that world, you want to make sure you are much more powerful than all of your Rivals because again if it turns out that the intentions of another state are malign and that state is really powerful and you get into trouble there's no higher authority you can turn to so in a world like that it makes eminently good sense to be as powerful as possible, indeed to be the hegemon in the system. But of course, all states understand that basic logic and the end result is that you get a competition for power I call that security competition and sometimes that security competition results in war so that's the basic argument that I lay out.”
Here's more Liberalising from Mearsheimer:
“Every human being has a moral compass and at the same time they have a set of interests. Sometimes that set of interests and the moral compass are lined up and you can pursue a policy or take action that is morally correct and maximizes your chances of satisfying your political or economic goals. But then there are those cases where your moral compass points in one direction and your interest compass points in the other direction and then the question is what do you do. And there are going to be cases where people do what their moral compass says they should do but as we both know from studying history there are lots of cases where people put aside what is morally correct according to their own compass and instead pursue policies that are morally incorrect but satisfy their own political or economic interests.”
Well, who can argue with conventional wisdom like this? I mean ok, I guess in a very abstract and useless way, such observations are truish, but if one is actually trying to explain reality in order to improve it, such “insights” are of no value whatsoever. On the other hand, Mearsheimer’s theoretical framework of international relations has resulted in a scathing criticism--an indictment really--of Western foreign policy especially as it pertains to Israel and Russia. It is Mearsheimer fierce and effective criticism of the West’s truly abysmal policies towards these two countries, that has resulted in his marginalization by the establishment press and has made him such a highly revered superstar in the alternative media.
I enjoy listening to Mearsheimer because he is a self-defined “realist”, who still maintains a lot of credibility within the Western establishment (notwithstanding his marginalization by their press) and he states truth that is typically verboten to say, especially to large mainstream audiences. For instance, Mearsheimer, with a matter-of-fact gravitas that is extremely effective, declares that Israel is an apartheid state. He will denounce the powerful Israel lobby as not good for the United States and not good for Israel. With regards to Russia, Mearsheimer denigrates the Western policy of unnecessary agitation and provocation, and according to his framework, Western policy towards Russia is self-defeating and counterproductive.
The French capture of Constantine, the capital of Constantine province in Northeastern Algeria in the early 1830s, eliminated most of the forces seeking to reinstate the Regency of Algiers, a tributary kingdom of the Ottoman Empire. This allowed the French to concentrate on their battle with the stronger nationalist forces under Abd Al-Qādir in the West and Center. France's extremely brutal conquest of Algeria (1830—1903) is a typical example of Western colonialism in action. According to several historians, the methods used by the French to establish control over Algeria reached genocidal proportions, with war, famine and disease leading to the deaths of between 500,000 and 1 million Algerians within the first three decades of the conquest out of an estimated population of 3 million.[11][12][70] French losses from 1830 until 1862, were 480,000 total dead (civilians and soldiers).[10](Painting by Horace Vernet).
Mearsheimer’s barbarous liberalism demands perpetual confrontation, conflict, and war and I worry that too many people are buying into this BS and believe that great power politics, might makes right, and the subordination of morality to political and economic interests are natural, inevitable, and something we need to resign ourselves to.
Lili News 029
- In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
- Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
- Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.
- In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
- Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
- Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR / SOURCE
Editor-at-large Billy Bob is a dedicated anti-imperialist activist and blogger. He hosts the Blowback roundatable. You can reach him at his Facebook page HERE.
Editor-at-large Billy Bob is a dedicated anti-imperialist activist and blogger. He hosts the Blowback roundatable. You can reach him at his Facebook page HERE. Print this article 
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Great article that needs to be widely read. The emphasis on class analysis and liberalism is critical. The odious philosophy of liberalism underpins all aspects of capitalist societies today – their politics, education, science, economics, morality, even modes of thought. For more on liberalism, a wonderful starting point is Domenico Losurdo’s ‘Liberalism, a counter-history’. Bob is being too lenient to say that the murder and mayhem of the West is limited to the past 200 years. The grotesque horrors have been continuous for at least the last 500 years. The rest of the world, the majority of humanity, has had… Read more »
High time someone on the real left took a serious look at one of these establishment gurus selling us fake “philosophical profundity”. Mearsheimer is notable because he breaks ranks with the neocon consensus in terms of the recipe to follow to attain imperial goals, but otherwise his posture is morally the same (immoral or amoral) as the rest of the pack. Let’s face it, amorality in international affairs IS an ideological posture with consequences. It’s always denied by the “great” culture “arbiters” controllng the major institutional platforms (academic, media, etc.), but the reality speaks for itself. The author makes that… Read more »
What makes class solidarity more moral than national interest as a casus belli? How does it have more descriptive power? The Russian Federation went to war because the Russian sphere of influence was intruded upon by NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin made many references in his speeches to Imperial Russia in order to explain the emotional attachment that Russians have for the land they are fighting for, going back all the way to the first millennia and the Kiev Rus. He specifically repudiated the decisions made by USSR to take Crimea away from Russia. No one involved in the Russian… Read more »
Mearsheimer is not being criticised for his Ukraine analysis/posture. He is being criticiced (1) because he argues for and slyly justifies the insane US “pivot to Asia”, and (2) because he represents the AMORAL / “Realpolitk” brand of foreign policy thinking in the West, which absolves imperialists and Neocons from the sheer criminality of their actions.
I’m not sure if Mearsheimer is a China hawk or not but I might place him in the liberal camp (albeit not the Robert Kagan camp) Because his worldview is derived from Hobbes and Machiavelli.
Realpolitik suggests that cooperation with China would probably serve American interests better than confrontation. Prof. Mearsheimer has deserted his own point of view.