So in political science broadly and especially foreign policy, the default is to assume that states themselves exist in an otherwise anarchic environment with no supernatural rules. Only responses to their own behavior, to the extent that another state can actually impose that on them, exist to potentially ‘govern’ them.
States are literally an abstraction, the fundamental reality is anarchy.
States also tend to not play nice with each other, nor with their own subjects.
States aren’t an abstraction, any more than the earth’s gravity and atmospheric pressure are an abstraction. Both exist and are very stable, despite nominally existing in what’s otherwise empty space, if you ignore the whole world.
So in political science broadly and especially foreign policy, the default is to assume that states themselves exist in an otherwise anarchic environment with no supernatural rules. Only responses to their own behavior, to the extent that another state can actually impose that on them, exist to potentially ‘govern’ them.
States are literally an abstraction, the fundamental reality is anarchy.
States also tend to not play nice with each other, nor with their own subjects.
States aren’t an abstraction, any more than the earth’s gravity and atmospheric pressure are an abstraction. Both exist and are very stable, despite nominally existing in what’s otherwise empty space, if you ignore the whole world.