That's bullshit and you know it. The entire thread fucking tosses around false flags around like it was a gay pride parade and how every single thing said by Ukraine is a lie while cheering on Russia every time they say fucking boo. And every post that is even moderately anti-Russia propaganda gets the same chucklefucks up in arms every goddamn time.
And poor beleaguered Russia, who always finds an excuse to invade one of its direct neighbors because they feel scared, not due to an actual threat, always a perceived one.
And Mearshimer is a realist, I can respect that. But he is a realist to a fault, and unapologetically so. His blind spots are always that Nations are run by people, who act on specific beliefs in addition to the power struggles. He also has a massive hard on for confrontation with China, not bat in and of itself but it tends to cause myopia in his view of other threats around the world. Look, I'm not on the neoliberal bandwagon either, far from it. The fuckknuckles in a lot of the west could use a bit of realism to cut the cocaine of free trade will fix the world. But Mearshimer believes that no matter what, that is the only shit that matters, especially since every nation always sees itself as insecure. Power is still king in IR, but how and why that power is used is based on the nature of the country and what its morals real and most importantly, perceived are.
Then there are other questions such as how much is a nation willing to follow the rules of the road, how far are they willing to bend those rules, and do they have enough allies to back their play? That's more than a strict power formulation.
But arguing IR schools of thought is as pointless as arguing philosophy. They're the same as the assholes working at Starbucks with the single most useless degree of all time, except IR theories only get tested when a fuckton of people end up dead.
and are just so EVULLL.
