Was Realizm and State Really Sacked by Capitalism?

Abstract

The paper contemplates on the multiple and often paradoxical relationships between major theories of international relations (IR) and states in the progress of capitalism. It particularly attempts to reconstruct the missed link between realism and capitalism. On the one hand, ad hoc policies in compliance with realist theory have strengthened the state; on the other hand, the nation state has played an historical role in the standardization of values, norms, and rules within different territories, and so paved the way for interdependence and globalization. However, realism fallaciously conceives of the state as a metaphysical or eternal entity by ignoring the historically embedded link between the state system and capitalism. As capitalism matured and felt itself squeezed within national territories, realist theory has been declared dysfunctional and new theories that justify the expansion of capitalism all over the world have come into agenda. Dialectically, realist theory, via its support for the state, has contributed to the formation of interdependence and globalization, and, in their turn, those theories have transformed realist theory through the route.