| When maps of the world are compared with geographic globes, it is clear that the borders between countries are not physical ones, but rather ones that are socially constructed by the peoples who live within them. Classical realism took these states as the primary or even only actor in a system of states. In 1778, George Washington wrote, "It is a maxim founded on the universal experience of mankind that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest." Power politics, with its narrow focus on national interest came to dominate international relations theory.;With the advent of the Cold War, and with the security dilemma between states resolved in bipolarity, "new thinking" began to emerge which might better explain relations between nations. This "new thinking" created the paradigm of institutionalism, a functional approach to power and interest, shaped by interdependent economic relationships. Additional "new thinking" based on postmodern philosophical thought, caused us to understand that borders and boundaries between peoples that created nation-states were social constructions and were based on identity variables. An institutional teleology developed that was to lead to democratic peace and universal prosperity.;Realists reject this new thinking and find institutionalism a morass of relativity which invariably leads to utopian thinking. History has shown utopianism to be dangerous because it ignores power politics and in this nuclear world, this could be catastrophic. When constructivism is seen as the natural progression of institutional thought, the elegance of explanation and prediction, common to realist theory, slips likewise into the quagmire that often defines social science theory.;The study of Germany as a social construction from 1700 to the present day illustrates the interaction of realist principles with postmodern thought to create a nexus between identity variables and power politics. This in turn creates a new paradigm by which the elegance and parsimony of realism is preserved while at the same time giving the theory additional identity tools which broadens its basic understanding of the world as it is. |
