ABSTRACT
DESPITE SUBSTANTIAL differences in the approaches, methods, and formulations of various individual realists, there is little doubt that political realism constitutes a coherent tradition of explaining political behavior. Centered on an understanding of politics as a permanent struggle for power and security, political realism has consistendy sought to explain how entities seek to preserve themselves in an environment characterized by pervasive egoism and the ever-present possibility of harm. The presence of egoism implies that all entities value only themselves; the interaction of many such entities creates a situation in which each becomes a limitation on the security, freedom, and ambitions of the others; and the competition which results is characterized by each entity constantly jostling with other entities in an attempt to preserve its own power and enhance its own safety. Realist approaches thus perceive politics primarily as a conflictual interaction. Consequendy, their analyses of political behavior center, at least in the first instance, on a positive description of how political entities cope with ubiquitous threats in the face of unending security competition. This positive description of political actions aimed at enhancing security constitutes the "minimum realist program." This program has been articulated differendy in diverse formulations beginning with the antiquarian philosophic-historical reflections of Thucvdides and culminating in contemporary social-scientific theories, the most prominent of which is the systemic-structuralism of Kenneth Waltz.
