The Marxist
perspective is one of the most important and a lively approach to the study of
International Politics which is different from traditional theories of
international relations such as realism and neo-realism in manner; that it does
not support to maintain status-quo in the international system. Rather, it
attempts to bring the radical change in the prevailing social and political
order. Furthermore, it has been emerged as a very powerful and dominant form of
social theory and has both critical and emancipator intent or aspiration. It
simply means that being a critical social theory, it not only focuses to unfold
the laws and peculiarities of capitalist globalization in terms of global
inequalities, class conflicts, spheres of power and production exploitation,
alienation and estrangement but also to replace them with a form of universal
cooperation and emancipation which would promote freedom and peace for all.
Marxism as an important theory of international relations(IR), offers an
alternative understanding of „International Relations‟, particularly of the
realist theorization of international relations. Marxism as it is well known is
based on the philosophical, economic and political work of Karl Marx. Marxism
as a body of theory has also provided us thoughtful insights of International
relations by linking it with the analysis of capitalism as an economic system.
From its inception, capitalism had an inextricable link with colonialism,
domination and imperialism therefore, for the purpose of criticizing capitalism
and its effect on human lives, Marxists and neo Marxists have developed
sophisticated conceptual tools and methods to understand social reality.
“Marx wrote that philosophers had only
interpreted the world whereas the real point was to change it” (Marx
1977b:158).The Marxist approach to international politics focuses on totality
to understand international system. Its main objective is to bring a radical
change in the working of international system which is obsessed from war,
terrorism, poverty and other kinds of human problems. The Marxist approach to
International Politics can be understood through the writings of Marxist
scholars which are reflected in the World system theory and Dependency theory. Marxism as a school of thought is an
economically deterministic approach to IR which focuses only on class
relationships. For Marxist scholars the international system is highly
stratified and dominated by international capitalist system. According to
Marxist approach the Social classes, transnational elites; multinational
corporations are the key actors of world politics. For them state is an agent
of bourgeoisie and a means of exploitation of proletariat. They viewed
structure of international system as conflictual which is based on zero-sum
game therefore; the ultimate goal is class-interest and to bring the radical
change instead of maintaining status-quo as realist scholars claimed.