To look at any section of history is to watch a grand drama play out. To simplify the great tapestry of history to a general theme, the past is a struggle of those in power to remain in power, those out of power to gain power, and those who are trapped between these combatants to keep enough power to not be too adversely affected when a new ruler arises. To take a familiar example, look at the American revolution: the colonists fought to gain self-determination, frustrated by the overreaching and neglectful governance of the British. For its part, Britain had no desire to part with sovereignty over the lucrative eastern seaboard of North America. The other European states that involved themselves in the conflict aided the colonists to shift the balance of power away from the British. The British were those in power afraid to lose their position of dominance. The Americans were those out of power seeking to better their station. France, Spain, and Prussia were the spectators who manipulated events in an attempt to jockey to better positions within the political labyrinth of Europe.
At face value, security is something good, something to be desired. No one wants to live in a country that is constantly facing invasion. No one wants to live in fear of riots in the streets and rampant acts of violence. No one wants to be conquered by an aggressive and debauched tyrant. How, then, can these unwanted outcomes be avoided? The security paradigm of modern political realists proposes a solution: by shoring up weak spots within a state, within a society. To stop a foreign invader, build up an army. To stop sedition, build a strong central police force. To stop espionage, create a counter-intelligence force. Other examples of what the security paradigm might recommend are abundant. The point to be made is that this paradigm emphasizes the increase of the policing powers of a state. With this emphasis comes the possibility of tyranny.
Any time power is gathered in one place, abuse of such inevitably follows. Lord Acton’s adage can here be remembered. Realism, which so correctly predicts that man will act self-interestedly, and so seeks to curb the effects of that self-interest in hostile states, cannot prevent the self-interest of actors within a state that are granted the necessary requisites to resist other states. In simpler words, realists must sacrifice individual rights for communal security. This, in principle, is the avoiding of foreign tyrants through the creation of domestic ones (or the avoiding of domestic tyrants through the creation of different domestic tyrants). Realism, then, lends itself to the creating of the unwanted tyrant by the very methods used to prevent tyranny.
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- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, (New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1932), 43.
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