Internation Relations Research Paper

[jmasta]

I have a term paper where I have to explain why the Cuban missile crisis can be explained by realist theory, and why it can't explained by liberalism?  I have found some interesting material for the explanation of how it can be explain by realism, but I can't seem to find anything scholarly pertaining to why liberalism cannot explain the issues surrounding the event.  Does anyone know where I can find anything of note on this subject?

[exchemist]

I have a term paper where I have to explain why the Cuban missile crisis can be explained by realist theory, and why it can't explained by liberalism?  I have found some interesting material for the explanation of how it can be explain by realism, but I can't seem to find anything scholarly pertaining to why liberalism cannot explain the issues surrounding the event.  Does anyone know where I can find anything of note on this subject?

There is a challenge to the "liberal" view of the handling of the crisis by Kennedy here: https://www.wpunj.edu/cohss/departments/pol_sci/faculty/shalom/cuban-missile-crisis.html

 

I have not read it all and I don't know if it is what you are after but it may give you some ideas. 

Edited April 3, 2018 by exchemist

[jmasta]

Yeah, I did find that one, but that seemed to be the extent of the liberalist perspective on the subject

[exchemist]

Yeah, I did find that one, but that seemed to be the extent of the liberalist perspective on the subject

Presumably that is because liberalism does not account for it! So it's sort of QED, isn't it? 

 

It looks as if you will have to rely on making some original observations of your own, then, which is no bad thing. It seems to me there is a decent argument to be constructed along the lines that Khrushchev was not a liberal and so the reasoning processes of the Politburo would not have been liberal ones. And on the US side, the doctrine of "spheres of influence", espoused by the US at the time,  is surely not a liberal doctrine, is it? So one can fairly easily make the case that the behaviour of both sides was not governed by liberal principles. And then you give examples to illustrate that thesis, no?  

Edited April 3, 2018 by exchemist