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Considers the idea that Barack Obama and his administration may be realists, or if not, then possibly pragmatists. Debates the different possibilities as to what to properly label the new president with special regard towards his foreign policy. Obama has rejected the work of George W. Bush as misguided whereas he saw the presidency of his father as being praiseworthy. Considers also Obama's downplaying of human rights for sake of economic and diplomatic relations. Examines the realist philosophy and agenda beginning in the 1970's to offer a full spectrum in today's context. Adapted from the source document.

With the renaissance of political realism has come an insistence that the study of politics be historically located. While many political realists trace their conception of historical inquiry to Thucydides, this article shows how Herodotus can offer a more realist approach to political phenomena. Herodotus crafts a self-conscious form of historical inquiry that foregrounds the actual activity of the historian as intersubjective, reflective, and particular. Herodotus thus models a historical investigation that shows its own limits while demanding the evaluation of its readers, offering a way to address criticisms of political realism's singular and unacknowledged historical narratives. Moreover, Herodotus's Histories exemplify a disposition toward open inquiry among others—what Herodotus calls wonder—that can invigorate responsive curiosity as part of the project of historical understanding essential to both political realism and contemporary democracies.

'Roots of Realism' edited by Benjamin Frankel and 'Realism: Restatements and Renewal' edited by Benjamin Frankel are reviewed. A review is presented of two books edited by Benjamin Frankel: 1. Roots of Realism and 2. Realism: Restatements and Renewal.

Buzan reviews 'Realism: Restatements and Renewal,' edited by Benjamin Frankel, and 'Roots of Realism' edited by Benjamin Frankel.

The author deals with neoclassical realism, the approach which emerged within
the realist school of thought about international relations during the
nineties of the last century. The goal of the paper is to consider the
establishment and development of the approach during this decade and later in
the 21st century, in order to show that it improved the realist school of
thought and thus responded to the challenge that the end of the Cold War
posed to it. This improvement consists of an integration of systemic level of
analysis, on which neorealism insists, with unit level, from which classical
realism and other IR schools of thought start. The author illustrates the
application of neoclassical realism on the research of the topics relevant
for the 21st century through the examples of several significant titles
within the approach, but also citing his own application of the approach.

Kenneth Waltz's Theory of International Politics is a modern classic, and deserves to be read the way classic texts ought to be read, i.e. in context and in its own terms. Recovering the context in this case is difficult because of the changes in the discourse since 1979, but one difference between the contemporary and the current reception of the text does seem clear — Waltzian structural realism (or neorealism) is now, but was not then, seen as breaking with the traditions of classical realism. How is this discontinuity to be understood? Part of the answer lies in the rhetoric employed by participants in this debate, but, more substantively, there is a genuine disagreement between neorealism and classical realism over the role played by human nature in international relations. Waltzian neorealism appears, contrary to the tradition, to reject any major role for human nature, describing theories that emphasise this notion as `reductionist'; however, on closer examination, the picture is less clear-cut. Waltz's account of human nature can be related quite closely to the major strands in the realist genealogy, but at a tangent to them. Interestingly, and perhaps unexpectedly, it is also compatible with at least some of the findings of contemporary evolutionary psychology.