Where are the Realists Defending Trump?

He is Making their Case Perfectly

What is Geopolitics 101 according to Professor John Mearsheimer? Well its very simple, Great Powers, particularly nuclear powers, are going to do what they need to do to look after their own interests. This is particularly the case when it comes to areas close to the great powers.

Indeed, Mearsheimer said as much when he defended Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.

This is Geopolitics 101: great powers are always sensitive to potential threats near their home territory.

This idea has been the core of the realists arguments on Russia and Ukraine since. All states (type of regime is basically irrelevant to them) seek security and power in a chaotic international system. And the larger the power the more the interest. In particular this seems to apply to neighboring and close states. And nuclear armed powers in particular are to be deferred to.

Stephen Walt made this entirely clear on the eve of Putin’s full scale invasion of Ukraine. In an article published only a month before the full-scale invasion, lesser power Ukraine was described as a security interest of Great Power Russia—with all that that entailed.

“Unpleasant as it may be, the United States and its allies need to recognize that Ukraine’s geopolitical alignment is a vital interest for Russia—one it is willing to use force to defend—and this is not because Putin happens to be a ruthless autocrat with a nostalgic fondness for the old Soviet past. Great powers are never indifferent to the geostrategic forces arrayed on their borders.”

Well guess what? Donald Trump is speaking the realists’ language — word for word.