It's weird when historians treat states as rational actors. States are not entities with agency, In reality, states are made up of a bunch individuals often with competing interests and, because of the principal-agent problem, there is no reason to believe that any of these indviduals ever truly act on behalf of the interest of the state over their own narrow self-interest
>>18446545only old historians do that
>>18446545>b-but le balance of power!>states always seek to expand their power>but they’re also fine with establishing a balance of power in the interest of not losing everything in ruinous wars>but it would be in the interest of a state to break the balance of power in order to get more for themselves>but by doing that they risk losing everything so they won’t risk it>but then again (back and forth ad infinitum)Geopolitics and international relations is a joke discipline, “academics” don’t actually know how states operate.Like you said, if states were actually rational then the US would cut ties with Israel rather than continue to unconditionally support it when such support is so politically costly (pic related an entire book about this very topic!)
>>18446575The US support for Israel is rational when you consider America is run by corrupt geriatrics who are beholden to jewsh lobbyists
>>18446625You are just restating what he said. If policy makers are bought by the lobby, it just means that those policy makers are behaving in their rational self-interest, not the state.
>>18446545you're mixing up historians and IR theorists
