Defensive realism "is an umbrella term for several theories of international politics and foreign policy that build upon Robert Jervis's writings on the security dilemma and to a lesser extent upon Kenneth Waltz's balance-of-power theory (neorealism)." (Beavis) It suggests that security is the primary interest of most states, yet when one state takes action to increase its perceived security this action generally serves to decrease the perceived security of other competing states
"The security dilemma is an inescapable feature of life in an anarchic environment." (Taliaferro) Defensive realism not only describes international relations, it also makes recommendations -- however, when looking at history we can see look at the violation of these recommendations in a descriptive way to show where conflict is heightened and prescripted
Thus, now wars have to be fought for strictly political reasons." (Vaidyanatha) This highlights the defensive realism theory of a mutual spiral into aggression, for while Russia was not actually spearheading the attack, the very threat of Russian involvement was enough to drag the U
8th Army was detailing all units in Korea that refugees be attacked with all available fire including bombing." (Williams) As many as four hundred civilians at a time were killed in more than sixty reported incidents, and many more likely went unreported