In this study, prof Mearsheimer argues that the international system adopted by the United States and its alliances in the west after the cold war has reached the fading stage, which means a beginning of a new international format with different power balances and new international organization.
Mearsheimer starts with the definition of the system, what the system exactly means and what are types of the system. The distinction between international systems is based on three main dimensions: Scope; We find global and limited systems, and type; It divides them into realistic, ideological and neutral systems, and finally, in terms of the capacity and depth of the system, it divides between strong and weak systems. Then, Mearsheimer touched upon the reasons for the international system’s flourished and collapsed refers to that the realistic systems have a long life and great ability to continue, unlike liberal systems. To further clarify what he means by systems, Mearsheimer discusses 1945_ 1989 cold war systems, he said that this period has witnessed three systems at the international level. First, the international scope system with it the united states and the soviet union were coordinating their common interests, besides it, there were two powerful limited systems one of them under the united states’ leadership and the other under the soviet union’s leadership. By the soviet union collapsed and disintegrating of its limited system, the united states became the most powerful challenged state in the world and the unipolar age has been started, the obstacles imposed by the security rivalry between the superpowers had faded from the unipolar pole, and the United States-built system had remained firm vis-à-vis the Soviet Union.
The united states and its allies in the west have been set up the new international liberal system after the cold war, through: first, open the door for membership in institutions that the western system based on, second, set up for an international economic system based on the open market economy, third, enforces liberal democracy on the other world countries. This new system achieved huge success in the period between 1990 and 2004. System’s values spread broadly around the world. From 2005, this system witnessed a state of continuous collapse to the present moment, this collapse alerted its fading and replacement it with a realistic system more suitable for the new real according to Mearsheimer. For showing the reasons for the system’s collapse, he addresses several main and pivotal causes which leads to this collapse in his view. These causes are: The wars and conflicts that the democratization process has created on other States have not yet ended, And the problems that these interventions have caused have run into nationalism, which is the strongest political faith at this time. Adding to that, problems caused by this system related to the violation of the sovereignty of many States, including the Western States themselves. Finally, the political and economic problems with which the western states suffered from and caused by extreme globalization go with the system’s formation caused and was the main condition for its success.
Mearsheimer concluded in the study that the failure of the international liberal system was inevitable since its inception because of flaws and gaps it experienced with its growth. Now, the new alternative to that system must be identified, this alternative is Powerful finite reality systems. So, if the united states want to keep the forefront in new powers balances with the rise of China and Russia, it must work in two parallel directions. First; starts in setup Powerful finite reality systems, second; seek as possible to have as much influence as possible in the international system that will be created following the collapse of the current system, which will deal with regulating the common interests of competing forces in the international system.
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