Mearsheimer's World—Offensive Realism and the Struggle for Security: A Review Essay

Overview

Glenn Snyder of the University of North Carolina reviews John Mearsheimer's The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, which lays out Mearsheimer's theory of offensive realism. According to Mearsheimer, states are forever locked in a limitless power struggle within an anarchic international system. To enhance their security, they constantly seek to accumulate more power. Snyder praises the work as a "a major theoretical advance," but argues that Mearsheimer's pessimistic assessment of state behavior and the international system is not fully justified. In his "unremitting focus on power-security competition among great powers," argues Snyder, Mearsheimer gives "short shrift" or omits entirely many other aspects of international politics, including the role of institutions and domestic politics.