4　現実主義／平和主義理論における理想と現実

抄録

Realists often criticize pacifism for its overly idealistic security model and the fact that it does not reflect the reality of international society, thus concluding that it does more harm than good. To ensure the security of a state, so these critics say, pacifists rely on the utopian ideas of cooperation and dialogue, whereas realists give much more weight to realistic means, such as balance and power. Pacifists, however, do not think of their own security model as being too optimistic. Rather, in their view, the realist security model of the balance of power rests on a controversial premise that simply assumes the practice of rational self-restraint by those who actually manipulate political and military power.

Both pacifists and realists appear to assert that their opponent’s theory is just a fantasy, and that their own theory truly captures the reality of the world. In my opinion, however, such a controversy, in which each side competes to be less idealistic and more realistic than the other, seems to be off the point, because theorizing in general cannot help but inevitably contain some idealized abstraction of our reality. What should be asked instead is, what the purpose of the idealization is, and whether it is accompanied with some viable options for dealing with a notalways-ideal reality.

This paper makes reference to recent methodological studies in contemporary political philosophy concerning the ideal/non-ideal theory distinction, with an aim to correct the nature and purpose of the above-mentioned (and somewhat misleading) realist-pacifist dispute. After making clear that realists are not different frompacifists in that they, too, idealize part of our reality through the process of theorizing, I suggest that a non-ideal reality be incorporated into the theory again to meet the requirements of practical feasibility. Lastly, I emphasize that our attempt to depict a utopian ideal nevertheless continues to play an important constitutive role in the entire theoretical enterprise.