ABSTRACT
Realism is the most well-established theoretical perspective in International Relations. Indeed, it has been argued that realism has dominated International Relations to such a degree that students, and indeed scholars, have often lost sight of the fact that it is in fact one perspective amongst many. The result is that realism is often presented as if it were a ‘commonsense’ view of the world against which all other perspectives should be judged. We will return to this notion of realism as ‘common sense’ later in the book. At this juncture, it is enough to highlight that realism is one perspective in IR, not the perspective.
Realism has been represented using the idea of a billiard table in which the balls represent sovereign states (hence, the ‘billiard ball model’).
