# John Mearsheimer Political scientist at the University of Chicago and the leading theorist of **offensive realism** — the argument, set out in *The Tragedy of Great Power Politics* (2001), that great powers are driven by the structure of an anarchic international system to pursue regional hegemony regardless of their intentions or domestic character. A West Point graduate and Air Force veteran, he opposed the 2003 [[Iraq War]] on realist grounds and is among the most-cited academic critics of NATO expansion. With [[Stephen Walt]] he co-wrote *The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy* (2007), which generated sustained and heated controversy. Affiliated with the [[Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft]]. He shares conclusions with [[Andrew Bacevich]] but arrives by a different route: Mearsheimer's objection to American primacy is **structural and amoral**, Bacevich's is **moral and republican**. ## See Also - [[Stephen Walt]] · [[Andrew Bacevich]] · [[Realism (International Relations)]] - [[Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft]] [[People Hub]]