No Rest for the Weary: Competition and Emulation in International Politics. A Waltzian Perspective

ABSTRACT

Today, as before in history, competition between states and pressure to emulate the practices of the more successful competitors continue unabated. This article argues that in international politics continuities are far more impressive, and far more engrained, than we might think. By pointing towards the competitive and emulative behaviour of states, the article argues that some 500 years of international-political history lends credence to the old Waltzian proposition that in anarchic realms competitive and emulative behaviour are to be expected. Thus, in examining the conduct of international politics across three distinct international-political systems, the article points to (i) the impressive continuity of international politics, particularly with an eye towards competition and emulation, and (ii) the enduring quality of Waltzian structural realism. Although Waltz’s publications briefly touch on the continuity of international politics, he provides but few historical illustrations, a shortcoming this article addresses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The (constructivist) charge that Waltz’s conception of structure provides no room for the ‘social’ (i.e. is crudely materialistic) is not only widespread but in error (cf. LaRoche and Pratt 2017). In fact, as LaRoche and Pratt (2017, 19) have noted, ‘Waltz’s approach to the relationship between the material and the social anticipates constructivism’.