keep calm and watch more john youtubez
Do you consider your self to be a relative expert on Mearsheimer in these parts?
Compared to most people here? Sure. I read one of his books, some of his papers, and watched many of his youtubes. Most people here can’t or won’t even remotely accurately restate his actual positions. You’re an exception. But compared to someone who’s actually studied international relations? Of course not.
You’re touting Mearsh as a leading expert on Ukraine and Russia while being unwilling to look into any alternative explanations or voices of expertise.
Every person ITT who is actually going back and forth with SK is a sucker lol.
3 Likes
Mearsheimer isn’t an expert on Ukraine or Russia. He’s a renowned expert in international relations. Just because I don’t agree with what you think doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to look at alternative voices or explanations. I may still disagree with you even after looking at those explanations though.
cry harder
From what you have experienced of Mearsheimer, do you agree with his basic theory of offensive realism? How well do you understand the alternative theories?
Yeah, probably, I don’t know. But I can’t exactly articulate why offensive realism is more correct than defensive. When you’ve only read one book by an IR scholar you’re not really in a position to make broad pronouncements about the correctness of this or that IR theory because you’re literally read only one side of things. And not even the whole side.
And I think the book I read was aimed more at a popular audience so 
good book though, very compelling:
Can you articulate why you think realism is preferable to liberalism, constructivism, Marxism, or other theories of international relations? I think it would be sufficient to read the Wikipedia article on any of those IR theories to have a sense of whether you like it or not.
Why? Again, I’m not claiming any expertise here, and am not saying Mearsheimer’s view of IR is correct and his peers are wrong. John can handle all that himself I suspect.
I could restate Mearsheimer’s opinions on Fukyama’s mistaken view on post cold war IR because that’s what the book I read was about. But that’d just be restating John’s opinion, which I found compelling but was unrebutted. What’s the point of that exactly?
I’m not asking you to be an expert. I’m asking you to not be the equivalent of someone who says that Milton Friedman makes a lot of sense so you don’t need to know anything about what the Keynesians say.
I’m not saying that people don’t need to know about various IR theories. I’m saying I don’t know much about the various IR theories, including Mearsheimer’s offensive realism. I don’t have an opinion about IR beyond generally thinking that Mearsheimer’s post cold war analysis makes a lot more sense than Fukuyama’s. But that’s probably not fair to Fukuyama because I never read his rebuttal to Mearsheimer, if he had one.
Back atcha bub
2 Likes
This is your warning, no name calling.
I’m saying it would make you a better person and make this thread more interesting if you had the intellectual curiosity to learn more about IR. The same advice is valid for almost everyone else in this thread.
These are your warnings @boredsocial and @anon59375068, you’re clearly just trying to provoke/troll each other.
Well I never claimed any expertise, at all. Including in offensive realism! You’re trying to shoehorn me into the “offensive realist” label and then scold me for not carefully reviewing all the other IR schools of thought.