John Mearsheimer

Our countries are getting prosperous as a result.

But nevertheless, in the famous July crisis of 1914, this economic prosperity is unable to prevent World War I because security concerns or survival is more important.

So there are going to be lots of situations where prosperity and survival come into conflict.

And in those cases, survival will win.

Yeah.

Let me just back up a bit on that one.

And you were talking about will to power before.

The first big divide...

between realists is structural realists and human nature realists.

Nice.

And Hans Morgenthau, who was influenced by Nietzsche and therefore had that will to power logic embedded in his thinking about how the world works, right?

He was a human nature realist, okay?

I'm a structural realist.

And I believe it's not human nature.

It's not individuals and some will to power that drives competition and war.

What drives competition and war is the structure of the system.

It's anarchy.

So you're not as romantic as the human nature realists.

Yeah, there's just a world of difference between the two.

It's just important to understand that.