Realistic Theory Research Articles

India’s Quest for a Limited War-fighting Doctrine; Analyzing the Sundarji, Cold Start, Joint Doctrine Indian Armed Force and Land Warfare Doctrine

The strategic stability of South Asia predominantly depends on India and Pakistan. However, the Indian quest to indulge Pakistan in a limited war remains a constant threat to the strategic stability of South Asia. The dynamics of strategic stability have remained complex due to the hostile relations between India and Pakistan. India has remained in the process of doctrinal transformation since the 1980s. The Sundarji doctrine, Cold Start, Joint Doctrine (Indian Armed Forces), and Land Warfare doctrine all aim at launching an offensive against Pakistan. To supplement India’s ambitious aims in the region, India has frequently introduced innovative war-fighting doctrines. The Indian military's aggressive approach towards the region reflects India’s adherence to the principles of offensive realism. The theory of offensive realism promulgates the maximization of power by the dominant states. Therefore, it appropriately defines India’s limited warfighting aims in the region. The study provides a comprehensive understanding of prominent Indian war-fighting doctrines and their shortcomings. Consequently, it provides an in-depth knowledge of limited Indian war-fighting doctrines.

On Experimental Confirmation of Quantum Physics

In 1935, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) argued that (then new) quantum mechanics was incomplete. At the heart of EPR’s paradox was the strange non-local nature of an entangled state which allowed EPR to simultaneously assign local values for position and momentum of a particle. In 1964, John Bell proposed an inequality (Bell’s inequality) that must be satisfied by any local realistic theory. The experimental confirmation of quantum physics, i.e., the experimental test of Bell’s inequality, required a pair of particles in an entangled state. The experiments first performed in the early 1970s, followed by a series of experiments until now, have confirmed the violation of Bell’s inequality, strongly implying that local realistic descriptions of nature are not consistent with experimental observations. The early simplistic view of entanglement has now been significantly expanded to include mixed states and multiple particles. Moreover, theoretical and experimental studies on the nature of entanglement have led to quantum information science where entanglement is an essential resource. In this article, we briefly review the early experiments on Bell’s inequality and experimental attempts to close “loopholes” as well as some key experiments on quantum information.

The Role of United Nation in Addressing Human Rights Violations on Syria’s Internal Conflicts

Background: Syria is one of many Arab countries in the Middle East that are undergoing revolution and civil war. It was motivated by the authoritarian attitude of the government and the economic downturn that occurred until there was popular resistance to Bashar al-Assad's regime. This conflict in Syria has attracted worldwide attention, because one of these cases in Syria has entered into the most glaring case today, namely regarding human rights violations. Aim: This paper is intended to discuss the role of the United Nations (UN) in human rights violations in the Syrian conflict, the conflict in Syria the ruling government that uses the tools of the state (military) to deal with protests by its people, thus, triggers a domestic battle between the government (the ruling regime of Bashar al-Assad) and the civilians. Method: This paper uses qualitative research techniques with role theory analysis, with a realist theory approach, namely by describing the roles of international organizations (United Nations) where through secondary data, produce descriptive data according to analysis and existing facts of the subject or object observed. Findings: Efforts by the UN and the international community to uphold human rights in Syria are to send former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to trade in Syria, as well as the Arab League, which calls for opposition groups to unite and proposes the establishment of a transitional government on the proposal of the UN.

Holographic model with power-law Maxwell field for color superconductivity

Studying the color superconductivity (CSC) phase is important to understand the physics in the core of the neutron stars which is the only known context where the CSC phase might appear due to the gravitational force squeezing the matter to a sufficiently high density. We propose a simple holographic dual description of the CSC phase transition in the realistic Yang-Mills theory with the power-law Maxwell field. We find the CSC phase transition with the large color number in the deconfinement phase, which is not found in the case of the usual Maxwell field, if the power parameter characterizing for the power-law Maxwell field is sufficiently lower than one but above $1/2$ and the chemical potential is above a critical value. However, the power parameter is not arbitrary below one because when this parameter is sufficiently far away from one it leads to the occurrence of the CSC state in the confinement phase which is not compatible with a nonzero vacuum expectation value of the color nonsinglet operator.

Complicated Mixtures: Repurposing the Chthulucene’s Troublesome Trash in Toy Story 4

In a world plagued by plastic pollution (among other environmental threats), children’s stories dedicated to the positive role of plastic toys in children’s lives ought to be categorized as out of touch at best and immoral at worst. Disney’s Toy Story franchise, however, remains as popular as ever, with the fourth installment released in 2019 netting a slew of nominations and awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This paper examines the merits of Toy Story 4 as a posthumanist text that productively co-exists alongside and enters into dialogue with environmental critiques of plastic trash. I draw on Karen Barad’s new materialist theory of agential realism to reframe what is inherently a pro-plastic narrative into one that exemplifies the necessity of becoming comfortable with trash, with being lost, and with different approaches to reproduction, if, as Donna Haraway suggests, we are to stay with the trouble of irreversible plastic pollution that defines our Anthropocenic era.

Iran and the Gulf: The Era of Hassan Rouhani

The paper utilizes the theory of neoclassical realism as its theoretical foundation to understand the relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). An insight is provided into defining Rouhani’s foreign policy discourse and slogan, primarily towards the GCC, while addressing the significant shifts in the region, which implicated Iran’s Rouhani stance towards the GCC and its members. The paper concludes with how the recent developments of the Iranian elections and Ebrahim Raisi will impact the future of Iran-GCC relations. From an analytical standpoint, it was found that Rouhani had difficulty engaging with the GCC countries due to impediments by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Similarly, the article highlights Rouhani’s era in Iran’s foreign behavior towards the GCC while exploring whether he achieved his foreign ambitions and provided a vision for the significant challenges awaiting the Raisi presidency.

A Case for Critical Realism in Quest of Interdisciplinarity in Research with International Students

In response to a lack of theoretical engagement and interdisciplinarity in research with international students, this paper explores the affordances of critical realism and the critical realist theory of interdisciplinarity to the field. In so doing, I purport to offer the field an alternative philosophical paradigm and a theoretical blueprint that enables metatheoretical unity and theoretical pluralism to engage interdisciplinarity.

Climate Change Policies of Canada and China

The climate issue has become one of the topics of common concern today. Therefore, climate change policies have become increasingly crucial in domestic economic development and participation in international affairs. However, throughout the development of climate governance, there are similarities and differences in the formulation of climate policies between east and west countries. This paper chooses Canada as the representative of the western countries and China as the representative of the eastern countries to make a comparative analysis of the two countries’ climate governance process, the domestic climate actions, and the participation in International Climate Governance in recent years and uses the realism theory to explain. This paper finds that due to the differences in economic development and political systems in the history of Canada and China, the climate policies of the two countries develop differently. However, today, when the climate issue is becoming more urgent, the two countries face the common pressure brought by the climate issue and the common interests in solving the climate issue. Their climate change policies are highly similar.

Bosnia and Herzegovina in John Mearsheimer’s Concepts

Starting from the analysis of the texts of the American political scientist J. Mearsheimer created during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the central theme of the paper is Mearsheimer's view on the Bosnian issue. The political-administrative organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina is still a relevant topic that takes the form of a permanent political crisis. The paper presents a synthesis of Mearsherimer's conceptions immanent in the theory of offensive realism, as well as a breakdown of post-Cold War political processes which, according to the principle of causality, can be viewed as a catalyst for the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Understanding the current dynamics of world political movements with an emphasis on Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the fundamental components of this work.

A developing realist model of the pedagogical affordances of ICTs

This article sets out the eWits model of the pedagogical affordances of ICTs. These are inherent properties of computer technology that constitute possibilities for teachers to act to enable learning in classroom contexts. The model is informed by Gibson’s realist theory of the psychological affordances of objects. We challenge interpretivist notions of affordance: while teachers recognise ICT affordances and activate them in pedagogical practices, these acts of recognition do not constitute them. Affordances are powers and potentials in the technology, and exist whether or not they are recognised and actualised by a teacher. On this understanding, we put forward a typology of ICT affordances that can be read in contrasting directions. First, it models a hierarchy of technological potentials, sourced initially in the capability of tools themselves, which afford a succession of action possibilities for teachers, from technological literacy, to the representation and recontextualisation of knowledge, to pedagogical engagement with learners. Second, it reveals how recognition of these affordances by teachers is manifest in pedagogical decision-making in the ongoing knowledge construction that characterises classroom activities. Our consolidation of the model is described, as we have developed it in the course of our own research work.

RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY AND THE LIBYAN CRISIS: A NEOCLASSICAL REALIST ASSESSMENT

The processes taking place in the modern international system are both a catalyst and a consequence of the foreign policy of states. As a result of a number of systemic factors and the domestic political situation in Russia, the Middle East plays an important role on the Russian agenda. Moscow is pursuing an active policy towards the Libyan crisis, which resulted in the actual loss of statehood in Libya, which complicates the stabilization of the situation in the country and in the region. The purpose of this article is to analyze the systemic (independent variable) and domestic (intervening unit-level variables) processes that influence the formation of Russia’s foreign policy in relation to the Libyan crisis, within the framework of the neoclassical realist theory. The significance of this study lies in the application of a relatively new theoretical approach (neoclassical realism) to a case study (the Libyan crisis) in the study of Russian foreign policy.

Between discovery and exploitation of history: Lay theories of history and their connections to national identity and interest in history

One of the distinctions in modern historiography is that between collective memory and history. Although ideal historical research is presented as objective and driven by the search for accuracy, collective memory is nearly always distorted by the current group’s needs. In the current study, we assess whether common people use this professional distinction and whether these two concepts are used by the general population. Our findings are based on several different lines of quantitative studies with a total sample size of 3949: two representative Polish samples, a study of the collective memory of Oświęcim inhabitants and one representative study of inhabitants of six Polish cities. The findings show that laypeople distinguish between three different forms of historical understanding, corresponding to the (1) realistic view of history (history as a search for truth), (2) instrumental view of history (history as a construction in the service of the group’s current needs) and (3) relativistic view of history (disbelief in the possibility of historical cognition). The meta-analysis of correlations revealed that instrumental lay theory was positively related to the nationalistic in-group identity that glorifies the in-group. By contrast, realistic theory was positively related to patriotism – a form of in-group attachment that is open to criticism. The realistic theory was positively related, whereas the instrumental view was negatively related to the expressed interest in history. Moreover, the instrumental view of history was positively related to the explicit denial of the value of historical heritage and a strong focus on the present.

Socialist Realism or Cybernetics? Music, Information Theory, and Posthumanism in the German Democratic Republic

In their preface to Musikästhetik in der Diskussion (1981), the editors of the volume, Harry Goldschmidt and Georg Knepler, proclaim that “a new movement has made its mark on the field of music aesthetics,” a movement that promises to enrich the understanding of music with new impulses and approaches.1 In making this statement, the two eminent East German musicologists referred less to a global trend in the music aesthetics of their time than to its internal development in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), beginning in the late 1960s. Yet, the new aesthetic movement they duly identified would not have been possible without knowledge of major scientific developments that flourished outside the Eastern Bloc after World War II. Characterized by concepts about communication and sign systems, this movement was sustained by theoretical models originating in the scientific field of cybernetics and in the closely related area of information theory. As a reporter of the Berliner Zeitung observed in 1968, the new developments in science had a strong impact on Marxist aesthetic theory, which then was already confronted by challenges from art itself: Marxist aesthetics has been on the move in the GDR for some time. New social processes and factors demand their reflection by the socialist artist and thus at the same time [call for] a deepening of the theory of socialist realism: new features and dimensions of modern scientific development (cybernetics, semiotics, sociology, social psychology, etc.) pose new problems for aesthetic theory.2

Military Conscription in the 21st Century: Obsolescence or Relevance?

Post Russian invasion of Ukraine, questions about conscription have come into focus, prompting questions about military readiness and the value of such a policy. In analyzing the policy, international relations theories can act as a useful framework, and help elucidate conflict dynamics. In particular, Realism and Liberalism have contrasting depictions of the world, with the former characterizing it as an anarchic system in which states compete for power and security and the latter as a system in which states allay tensions through cooperation. This research draws upon these theories as it uses hypothesis testing—t-tests, ANOVA, and chi-squared statistics—to investigate the different attributes of countries as they relate to conscription policies. A wide range of variables were chosen including military expenditure, imports and exports, the Human Development Index, and the EIU Democracy Index in order to test statistically significant differences through the aforementioned tools. Overall, this research finds that both realist and liberal theories have explanatory power and provide insight into how desire for hard and soft power may impact decisions to enact and maintain conscription policies. Data and graphs were interpreted alongside such concepts in order to reach this conclusion.

Obama's Leading from behind Approach in MENA and Political Stability in Libya

The main concern of the paper is to explore how Obama's leading approach from behind or low engagement approach in MENA has contributed to the instability and crippling of the political transition in Libya. The paper employs the descriptive method to pursue and analyze the implications of Obama's leading-from-behind approach to political stability and transition in Libya. The paper uses the defensive realism theory in an attempt to explain Obama's leading-from-behind approach in MENA. The paper found that Obama's leading from-behind approach had three direct implications on the instability and crippling of the political transition in Libya: first, military intervention to topple Ghaddafi Regime without a plan for political transition, which was required in a very complex case like the Libyan case. Second, the absence of the U S's active role and leaving Libya with very weak and divided European leadership. Third- U.S.'s inaction to prevent the regional powers from spoiling UNSMIL's efforts. Accordingly, the Obama administration bears the largest share of the instability and crippling of the political transition in Libya.

The prediction of exit choice using cumulative prospect value

Exit choice is essential for pedestrian safety and evacuation efficiency during the context of an emergency. Cumulative prospect theory is a widespread realistic decision-making theory that can transform choice outcomes and probabilities into subjective terms and integrate them as a parameter of cumulative prospect value (CPV), which determines the decision. The main contribution of this paper is the use of the CPV to predict exit choice. Furthermore, the different decision-making rules including Max, exponential(Expo), and Ratio (i.e., the three variable choice functions) were summarized and examined. This study used a confusion matrix to compare the predicted results with experimental data. Consequently, the parameters of Accuracy and F1-score showed that the predictions from Max and Expo were significantly more realistic while the results from Ratio were much more robust.

Senses, Experience and Metaphysics. Review of: Papineau, D. (2021). Metaphysics of Sensory Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 163 p.

The work of David Papineau, the British scientist and philosopher, professor of the King’s College of London and the University of New York, former teacher of the University of Cambridge, is considered. The author analyzes the theories of sensory perception and experience, explains the advantages and disadvantages of each of them, in particular the theory of naive realism and representationalism. Considering these theories, he seeks an answer to the question about the metaphysical nature of the properties of consciousness and proposes his own metaphysics of sensory data and experience, which would solve the problems formulated by his predecessors, such as the problem of “broad content” and the problem of time, and gives arguments to confirm his own position, which he calls the “qualitative view”

Rolprent, Televisie en die Omgewing

Against the background of the realist and expressionist film theories it is argued in this article that directors of films/videos on the environment should work in a more realistic style. The purpose should be to develop closer contact between the viewer and the environment. A brief descrip tion of realism and expressionism as two dominant styles in filmmaking and of Direct cinema and cinéma vérité is given, and the implications of these styles for the relationship Image/environment are discussed.

Prawa człowieka w polityce zagranicznej Ukrainy. O wartościach liberalnych w czasach pokoju i wojny

The aim of this article is an attempt to present the process of implementation of the human rights issue in Ukraine’s foreign policy since 2014, when, as a result of the Revolution of Dignity, the pro-European direction of the country’s development was clearly declared as a final liberation from the colonial influence of Russia. The hypothesis of the presented considerations assumes that the European path of development and the construction of a human rights protection system based on European models is the basis for the internationalization of human rights issues in Ukraine’s foreign policy and is important in building an international coalition against Russian aggression. The specificity of the discussed topic required turning to the theory of classical realism, the theory of the state’s foreign policy and the liberal theory. To achieve the outlined goal, discourse analysis and political and legal analysis were used. This article is based on the analysis of monographs and scientific articles on human rights issues, attention has been paid to selected documents of Ukrainian legislation on foreign policy, the importance of Ukraine’s Foreign Policy Strategy of 2021 has been particularly emphasized, selected resolutions and other documents of international organizations have also been taken into account, which relate to the issue of human rights in Ukraine, the current events and their impact on the level of activity of Ukraine’s foreign policy in the field of human rights were taken into account. On the basis of the presented considerations, it can be concluded that the threat to state security, which is war, does not exclude active actions in foreign policy to protect human rights and freedoms, including Ukraine taking a firm stance in defense of liberal values.

Minimum detection efficiency for testing a multi-particle Bell inequality

Bell’s inequality provides a remarkable way to test the consistency between quantum mechanics and classic local realistic theory. However, experimental demonstrations of the loophole-free Bell test are challenging and only recently have been demonstrated with bipartite systems. A central obstacle for the photonic system is that the sampling efficiency, including the collection and detection efficiencies, must be above a certain threshold. We here generalize two-particle Eberhard’s inequality to the n-particle systems and derive a Bell-type inequality for multi-particle systems, which significantly relaxes this threshold. Furthermore, an experimental proposal to achieve a multi-partite Bell test without the fair sampling assumption is presented for the case of three particles. For any given value of the sampling efficiency, we give the optimal configurations for actual implementation, the optimal state, the maximum background noise that the system can tolerate, and the lowest fidelity of the quantum state. We believe our work can serve as a recipe for experimentalists planning to violate local realism using a multi-partite quantum state without the sampling loophole.