Introduction

Abstract

This book advances a coherent statement of defensive realism. By doing so, I seek to serve two purposes. First, I provide a menu of strategic choices for statesmen. Because the world has firmly evolved from an offensive realism world in the past to a defensive realism world in which we live today (Tang 2009b),¹ defensive realism is an appropriate guide for security strategy in our time. Indeed, unless all the major powers are firmly “socialized” into defensive realist states, a neoliberalism world—that is, a more rule-based international politics—will not come into existence. For policymakers who are more interested in the strategic choices within defensive realism, they can move directly to chapter 4 and 5, and refer to other chapters when they need further clarifications.²