PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Approaches to International Relations
Discuss the commonalities between the Marxist and Realist approach to the study of International Politics.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
| R1 ideological opposites → yet both read world politics as material + conflict, not Intro routes ideals/morality R82 openon the shared lens → materialist, structural, conflict-driven reading → morality set aside
Body flow
materialism (realism: power & survival — Morgenthau, Waltz — Marxism: historical Body flow materialism, world-system as capital) → conflict-prone arena (continuous power competition — opposed class interests) → hegemony & world order (Carr: "have" vs “have not" powers) → scepticism of universal norms (moral talk masks dominant interests) → structural convergence (Waltz concedes Lenin on imperialism; Wallerstein's core-periphery || realism's systemic constraints)
Counter-view
| central actor splits them → states in anarchy (realism) vs classes & market forces in an Counter-view exploitative capitalist world-economy (Marxism)
Conclusion routes
R1 different actors, shared method → convergence runs deeper than the rivalry Conclusion routes R2 materialism + structure + conflict unite them → they part only on who acts and what the system is
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
