Noam Chomsky and the realist tradition

This article examines the assumptions that underlie Noam Chomsky’s politics andargues that his analysis of US foreign policy since World War II may best be situated withinthe realist tradition in international relations. Chomsky’s left realism has not beenadequately understood or addressed by IR scholars for both political and disciplinaryreasons. In opposition to most classical realists, he has insisted that intellectuals should resistrather than serve national power interests. In contrast to most political scientists, he has alsorefused to theorize, critiquing much of the enterprise of social science in terms of what hesees as highly suspect power interests within the academy. Hostility to Chomsky’s normativecommitments has consequently prevented IR scholars from discerning key aspects of hisproject, as well as important historical and theoretical continuities between radical andrealist thought