State of nature versus states as firms: reassessing the Waltzian analogy of structural realism
| Published date | 01 December 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00471178221140086 |
| Author | Zhichao Tong |
| Date | 01 December 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00471178221140086
International Relations
2024, Vol. 38(4) 615 –634
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/00471178221140086
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State of nature versus states as
firms: reassessing the Waltzian
analogy of structural realism
Zhichao Tong
Sun Yat-Sen University
Abstract
This paper examines one often overlooked aspect of Kenneth Waltz’s Theory of International
Politics: the analogy he makes between firms and states. Specifically, I contrast this ‘states as
firms’ analogy adopted by Waltz with the state of nature analogy that has often been attributed
to him. I make three separate but interrelated claims: (1) the state of nature analogy is not only
different from the states as firms analogy, but may also be an inappropriate one for structural
realism in the sense that it fails to account for some of the theory’s key theses; (2) the states as
firms analogy helps us to better understand, if not to fully embrace, how Waltz arrives at certain
central premises of his theory; and (3) the states as firms analogy provides a more comprehensive
account of dynamic effects of the international system, including the transformation of state
attributes that would have been neglected by those who subscribe to the state of nature analogy.
Keywords
realism, state of nature, Theory of International Politics, Waltz
Introduction
International politics has often been described by realists as taking place in a state of
nature that is devoid of a central political authority. Such a characterization has been
commonly traced back to Thomas Hobbes, who in Leviathan uses the anarchy of states
in the international sphere, where ‘kings and persons of sovereign authority, because of
their independency, are in continual jealousies and in the state and posture of gladiators’,
to make sense of the natural condition of mankind in the absence of a sovereign power.1
Hobbes’s state of nature has subsequently been viewed as an analytical touchstone for
contemporary realist theories of international politics, including one of the most
Corresponding author:
Zhichao Tong, Center for Chinese Public Administration Research, Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 135 Xin
Gang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China.
Email: tongzhch3@mail.sysu.edu.cn
1140086IRE0010.1177/00471178221140086International RelationsTong
research-article2022
Article
616 International Relations 38(4)
influential ones, Kenneth Waltz’s structural realism. Specifically, it has been suggested
that Waltz is implicitly guided by Hobbes’s state of nature when locating the source of
interstate conflicts within the anarchical structure of the international system.2 As a
result, some critics of structural realism have also adopted the state of nature theorizing
in their critiques of Waltz’s theory, claiming either that there exist alternative, non-Hob-
besian conceptions of state of nature which better fit with international realities, or that
realists like Waltz have misunderstood Hobbes’s state of nature.
However, a careful reader of Theory of International Politics (TIP) would know that
Waltz’s own reference to the state of nature has never been as evident as people tend to
assume, and that the term itself is barely used throughout the book. More importantly,
insofar as Waltz adopts analogical reasoning in his structural realism, it is not the state of
nature analogy in which political communities are viewed as individual persons who
have not been subjected a common political authority, but what might be called a ‘states
as firms’ analogy where international relations is modeled after interfirm relations. As
Waltz put it directly in TIP, ‘just as economists define markets in terms of firms, so I
define international political structures in terms of states’ and that ‘states, especially big
ones, are like major corporations’.3 Yet, the difference between the two analogies has
received little attention in the literature, leading even those who recognize the economic
metaphor of Waltz’s theory to continue to characterize it as one based on an international
state of nature.
In this paper, I examine Waltz’s states as firms analogy used in TIP and contrast it
with the state of nature analogy that has often been associated with structural realism. I
make three separate but interrelated claims: (1) the state of nature analogy is not only
different from the states as firms analogy, but may also be an inappropriate one for struc-
tural realism in the sense that it fails to account for some of the theory’s key theses; (2)
the states as firms analogy helps us to better understand, if not to fully embrace, how
Waltz arrives at certain central premises of his theory; and (3) the states as firms analogy
provides a more comprehensive account of dynamic effects of the international system,
including the transformation of state attributes that would have been neglected by those
who subscribe to the state of nature analogy. By making those claims, I also hope to
demonstrate that Waltz’s structural realism is a far richer meta-theory of world politics
than what some of its critics often assume. In recent years, there have been a number of
new interpretations of Waltz that reevaluate his work as structural functionalist, politi-
cally liberal, post-Kantian constructivist, anti-positivist, and a defense of democratic for-
eign policy-making.4 I contribute to this ongoing endeavor by focusing on Waltz’s states
as firms analogy that has so far been overlooked in the literature.
Two purposes can be accomplished by clarifying the kind of analogy used by Waltz
in TIP. One is that it leads us to have a different understanding of his concept of anarchy
that has dominated the field of international relations since the publication of TIP, but
which has been criticized for lacking a clear definition.5 People who associate structural
realism with the state of nature analogy tend to view Waltz’s anarchy-hierarchy distinc-
tion along the lines of the Hobbesian distinction between the state of war and the
Leviathan sovereign.6 Yet, it has been pointed out that anarchy-as-a-state-of-war only
makes sense amid a complete breakdown of the international system (e.g. world wars)
and thus cannot serve as the ordering principle for a theory of international politics.7
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