(Essay two of three on Legend of the Galactic Heroes. As they will cover the entirety of the series, there will be spoilers.)
In the grand scope of its politics and conflicts, Legend of the Galactic Heroes definitely seems to favor one school of international relations theory for explaining how the universe works. Realism, one of the two broad categories of international relations thought emphasizes power, capabilities, and self-interest above interdependence, international institutions, and ideology. In both the real world and LoGH, one school of thought will not answer all questions or be applicable to all situations, but most people tend to side with one as a basis for interpreting and predicting events. Legend of the Galactic Heroes surely seems to side with realism, but also elevates it and its preference for using reason and self-interest to something noble and honorable. Throughout the series this way of thinking is shown as both wise and almost chivalrous.
Realism
Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Clauswitz, three prominent contributors to realist theory.
LoGH and Realism’s Basic Assumptions
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First, let’s look at the basic tenets of realism and how they are displayed in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. On the first point, that states are the primary unit of action and thus of analysis, LoGH acknowledges the existence of some smaller political actors such as the Terraism Church and Rubinsky’s small faction, but almost always concentrates on states. And in the LoGH universe, this is a fairly simple situation to take in as there are only ever at most four states in existence (the Reich, the Free Planets Alliance, the Dominion of Phezzan, and El Facil, though the latter two come under the control of the former two at certain points in the story.) This arrangement also lends itself to another realist concept, that of relative gains. Since the Reich and the FPA have been at war since the creation of the FPA and the universe doesn’t have any noticeable frontier areas for expansion, a gain in power by one state means a decrease in power for the other. The second main point, that the international order exists in a state of anarchy with no governing body or institutions, is an easy one to see met. Unlike the present day, there seem to be no international organizations or equivalent to the United Nations in the universe of LoGH. The states are all there is, and they have no framework which controls their pursuit of security through power.
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The third realist principle I would argue also is strongly exhibited in LoGH, despite (and actually because of) the devotion of Yang Wenli and Julian Minci to democracy and Reinhard von Lohengramm’s personal ambitions and values. Power and the security it provides are primary motivating factors for these characters, necessary to achieve their personal and domestic goals. Here it is important to divide the domestic and international spheres. Realism, and especially later subschools such as structural realism and neorealism, do acknowledge the domestic and psychological factors of states and their leaders even as they emphasize logic and power internationally. On the domestic front a state can pursue whichever sort of government and politics it wishes, but realism argues that these do not have a place in the power politics of international relations. Grounded in the Westphalian concept of sovereignty, realism would advise leaders to pursue whatever form of politics domestically that they wish, but to ensure the space for those politics to exist by ensuring the security of the state internationally via power and balancing.
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Two cases illustrate how realist theory is used to facilitate much more personal or ideological goals. Reinhard’s vow to seize the universe is a very personal and grand goal that he sets for himself. But despite his hatred for the corrupt members of the nobility and his personal concepts of what is worthy in a ruler and a leader, he goes about seizing power within the Reich and engaging the Free Planets Alliance in a mostly sober and calculating way, aided oftentimes by his own personal Machiavelli, Paul von Oberstein. Early in his career he plays different court and fleet factions off against each other, seeking alliances for his own self-interest but not depending upon them. During the Lippstadt War he also remains non-ideological when he accepts former nobles into his faction if they have not committed the offenses he seeks to bring justice to. And when he invades and occupies the Free Planets Alliance, he bases his the stability of his new territory on a mix of military forces and public persuasion where he is shown to be more responsive and just than the democracy he deposed. Power, balancing when necessary and using force when the time comes, was the means by which he was able to achieve his personal goals. In the last months of his life, he was only made somewhat amenable to the idea of parliamentary democracy by Julian’s insistence that it would be more functional for ensuring the stability of the Reich.
Yang and Julian each fought, planned, and engaged in diplomacy for the cause of democracy. But again they used realist means to create an environment for their domestic politics. They didn’t fight to spread democracy, and when Julian did offer it as a system of government to Reinhard it was done as a way to perpetuate the security of his preferred domestic system of government. Yang and Julian were both concerned about the amount of hard power they held and how to use it to secure the Free Planets Alliance. This took on particular importance after the invasion of Heinessen and the loss of a state to back them. How to best use their fleet and resources while in exile was constantly on their minds. And when Julian secured a future for a new Free Planets Alliance, he committed to continue on as a soldier, knowing that military strength would be the only thing that could maintain a secure environment for democracy to continue. The way that Julian secured a new FPA was surely of a more unusual way than most international relations theory looks at things, but in its heroics and appeal to Reinhard’s psychology I feel that it did have a realist tone to it. What Reinhard needed in order to acknowledge Julian’s ideals was a show of strength and ability. His personal psychology and values could not tolerate those who would lead a state but not risk their own lives and show their own ability in doing so. By demonstrating bravery and strength Julian and the forces of democracy earned his respect and thus a new treaty reestablishing the FPA. Reinhard was not swayed by ideas or rhetoric or norms, but by power and ability in defense of them.
The Nobility of Reason and the Terror of Ideology
Beyond just looking at the interplanetary wars and politics in its universe, LoGH also elevates the sort of rational, dispassionate thinking that realism in particular (though not always alone in IR theory) recommends to a kind of nobility. The characters that are shown as the most honorable and admirable think in terms of achieving power to facilitate their goals and don’t base their (foreign policy) actions on ideology. Likely drawing from the gentlemanly style that the series lifts from 17th to 19th century European warfare, many of the characters and those of the Reich in particular exhibit a refinement that lends itself to this way of thinking. With so much inspiration from an age where reason was the important characteristic for a leader or noble to have, it seems like it is the only way for the characters to act responsibly. The period in history that LoGH takes so much inspiration from may not have always been so reasonable, but prior to the French Revolution and the nationalist movements of the late 19th century it was a time where ideology was rarely a motivating factor in international relations. Combined with religion no longer being a matter of diplomacy and war following the Treaty of Westphalia, one could say that it was a golden age of realism in Europe. Reason and unreason exist side by side in human history, but being motivated by reason holds so much appeal because it makes the world a little more understandable and thus safe. Today’s world is a lot messier with religion and ethnicity based nationalism inspiring less than rational conflict, and LoGH seems to disdain such forces when they do appear.
The Church of Terra is probably the most maligned antagonist for the main characters in LoGH, and it is also an enemy to both of the powers. They’re shown as willing to go to any length, shed any amount of their own blood, and generally depicted as crazed. And on a visual level, they’re even ugly. The Terraists often have scowls and crazed, vicious eyes on their contorted faces. And that is precisely why they are so terrifying and so hated in LoGH: because they are unreasonable. They don’t fear death, they don’t consider power relations or self-interest beyond bringing about the restoration of their regime. They’re wild and outside the bounds of reason and logic that the other characters exist within. And even within their own organization LoGH undermines the spirit of ideologically motivated political actors. Despite all their devotion and holiness, the one who has usurped power barely follows or shows any respect to them. Di Villier openly scorns the stupidity of his followers and calculates and plots like some of the FPA and Reich characters would. It’s not even certain if he believes any of the Terraist teachings, just that he wants to restore Earth to a place of prominence and have power for himself. While LoGH doesn’t tackle ethnic nationalism, presumably grown past in the FPA and eugenically destroyed in the Reich, when it does address religion it is very negative towards it. Reason and logic can be cruel, but at least you have a chance against it. That unwillingness to compromise and see reason is at the heart of why LoGH condemns the illogical.
Conclusion and Observations on Historical Outlook
Conclusion and Observations on Historical Outlook
Looking at the whole of the series, the time period that LoGH draws inspiration from and the author’s preferences put forth the realist school of international relations theory as both the most useful and the most noble. It focuses on states, shows no international order above the state level, and has them act in rational ways to gain power to secure their domestic/leader’s personal values and politics. Using reason in this way is shown as natural and civilized, while the ideological and religious basis of the Church of Terra is shown as the most conducive to anarchy, terror, and human suffering. LoGH does not leave out the suffering caused by its wars of realism; a particular scene of an Imperial soldier crawling through a burning ship with his intestines hanging out, calling for his mother comes to mind. But it is much more sinister when it is done for unreasonable motives, lacking both logic and in LoGH’s view, honor. On a final note, and one that ends the series, realism tends to take a more pessimistic view of human nature and views conflicts and power politics as unchanging. Humans will always struggle to expand their state’s power and balance others to guarantee stability and security. Starting from the writings of Thucydides on the Peloponnesian War and continuing for centuries, realism would agree with the famous line from Legend of the Galactic Heroes that “in every time, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same.”
17 Comments
Great job. This is easily my favorite blog post on Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
Most of the time I appreciate it on the fanboy level and while there’s nothing wrong with that at all, I’ve not taken the time to reflect on things beyond moral questions that the heroes faced.
And even so, I never considered idealism (vs. realism) as a significant lens by which to view the choices made. It makes so much sense to do so.
Now that I’ve thought about it, the show does go overboard with its vilifying of idealism as represented by the Terraists, with the way they were drawn. It’s such a stark contrast to the otherwise even and perhaps unadventurous visual style of the show.
Thanks, and thanks for the link too. I ended up reading your post and several of the ones I got by following links from it too.
Theory is a useful tool, and while I don’t put as much faith in adhering to it as some, sometimes it just clicks. And while watching LoGH it really struck me how realism is used for just about every scenario. The ‘Heroes’ part has a lot to do with the psychology of the characters, but even within that they confined their preferences and values to the domestic realm. Just about everything international followed realist calculations and perceptions.
I’m all for vilifying religious (and ethnic/national) idealism, since I tend to jokingly agree with an undergrad professor of mine that things have gone downhill since the French Revolution, but LoGH did go a little far in making the Terraists so ugly. Which could be thematic, in that it shows how blind ideology twists men’s souls as it does their faces. Though there may be a tiny bit of science to it, not that it was available when LoGH was written: Israel and now the US have done a lot of research to identify how a person’s expressions and body language change when they’re about to carry out suicide attacks. Though from what I’ve read it tends to make them more clumsy and stuttered in their movements, not crazed looking.
Sorry for such a late response, but the last paragraph in this comment (and its accompanying material in your main post) seem to miss a very simple plot point that occurred. Every last Terraist (disregarding leaders) are fed rations that contain a drug that forces obedience with the side-effects of frantic outbursts.
It’s likely that their contorted faces are also a result of the drug they took. So it wasn’t so much that LotGH was out to make religious people in general as terribly ugly, crazed men, but rather that Terraists are that way.
However, even if it’s supposed to be an illusion to real religious people (that mix religion with political and militaristic interests), so be it. It may only be an opinion of mine, but it’s like Stephen Colbert says: “Reality has a liberal bias.”
That being said, of course religious people don’t have ugly faces, but the point stands that “blind ideology twists men’s souls”.
*allusion
An IR analysis of LOGH was something that I always though would be interesting to read, and here you have provided it in almost scholarly terms.
My only comment is that Yang, is too much of an idealist to really fit the realist tag. His decision not to take that shot, when the Brunhilde and Reinhardt von Lohengramm are in his sights, negates this. In pure balance of power terms, the Empire would have been at a great loss if it had lost it’s leader and surely at some point civil war would have ensued between the imperial admirals.
“On a final note, and one that ends the series, realism tends to take a more pessimistic view of human nature and views conflicts and power politics as unchanging”
Felix, you too…??
I actually was considering going all grad school on it and using footnotes and direct quotes, but I figured that 1) the post is long enough, and 2) I’m doing this for fun, not credit.
While I see your point, I still contend that Yang’s behavior still mostly fit a realist view. He talked about and worried about democracy for so much of the series, but he never wanted to try and spread it to other states (not that there were terribly many) or create an international democratic organization to help manage them. His idealism fit within the Westphalian notion of sovereignty where preferences on government and politics stayed firmly within the borders of his state. And when Julian recommended democracy to Reinhard, he did so mainly (in my view) because a democratic Reich would be a better guarantee of the FPA’s security. It almost approaches Democratic Peace Theory, which is about as liberal school as LoGH gets. Though I recognize that theory doesn’t fit all cases, and every one of his actions didn’t exactly play to the theory. Which is an important thing to remind people who specialize in theory about: decisions are made by humans, not algorithms.
Been like 9 years since I took my IR intro course in university, but good write up! I just wonder how ISI and soft power and so on fit in
I think one of the main reasons why LoGH decided to use realism as it’s main driver is that in many way, realism is the most ‘classic’ way of looking at the world, and as you know is the oldest theory of international relations, and certainly the one that makes the most intuitive sense to people.
Considering the size and scope of the show, I think creating any sort of further complexity to allow other IR theories to be effectively used, would have just been too confusing for people. Much like how superheroes generally act in certain unrealistic macho stereotypes because that just makes the most sense for people, a story as big as this being any more complex would just be off-putting.
Another reason why it is the way it is I believe is the context within which the story was written. Written by a Japanese author for a Japanese audience, it is only natural that religion basically does not factor into the show at all, except as a weird and foreign thing. The only people who are actually religious in the show are fanatics (perhaps creating a sort of real-world mirror to the fact that religion is a non-issue in Japan and the rest of south-east Asia, while religious and zealous terrorists are easily the most extreme example of religion accessible to normal people).
One interesting thing is the role of soft power in the Iselhorn government and how they decide to use the idea of democracy as a beacon for all people to continue their legacy. While it’s never truly and fully fleshed out (we never see them funding ‘Yang Wenli institutes’ the way China does the Confucius institutes), that is perhaps because the entire idea of soft power wasn’t even created until 1990, a year after the end of the original novels were published).
Finally it would be good to note that within the context of this story, the world in the 1980s was largely under the shadow of the two superpowers, the USSR and the USA, which acted heavily within the realism doctrine of rational self-interest, while Phezzan obviously reflects a bit of Japan of that time (highly technological, highly export dependent, and all business, but still nominally under the control of one of the two major powers).
With all of the developments in IR and of world events over the last 25 years, one wonders whether a more ‘modern’ LoGH would reflect that. Certainly, the rise of international terrorism was already well modeled in LoGH, but would the rising power of international institutions in today’s world have any effect on LoGH? Would the rising importance of soft power have any effect on a new LoGH? Finally would LoGH even really change, considering if it were made any more complex, then it would be cease to be an interesting story mainly about the stories to two brilliant people, and instead turn into something much more boring… namely real life.
Realism is the oldest and most classic school of IR theory, but beyond that I think that it’s the school of theory that seemed to make the most sense to Tanaka. I would tend to agree with him in most cases, and the 1980′s weren’t devoid of the liberal school and ideas of soft power either, though they took off after the end of the Cold War. The US and USSR competed with soft power in making their ideologies appealing through rhetoric, trade, funding, and (for the West) popular culture.
But I think the context of it being a Japanese work probably explains a lot. Japan industrialized during the tale end of that golden age of realism that I mentioned, and what little ideological basis for foreign policy it developed in the 1920′s was quickly subverted into a pretext for brutal empire building. Ideology, with all the ugliness shown in LoGH, factored into their wars in Asia, but for the most part its wars against the European colonies and America was conducted with realist strategy, at least until they became desperate near the very end and ramped up the ideological rhetoric to prepare the population for invasion. Since WWII Japan has almost entirely sworn off foreign policy beyond development aid as it was under a US security guarantee, tired of war, and had its forces restricted to the JSDF. Foreign policy tended to be restricted to trade policy, which operates like realism.
As for a modern LoGH, I think it could either play out like the original since realism is seen as timeless by those who favor it over other schools. Or it would include soft power and international institutions as one side of the conflict vs a very sovereignty-centric state, which might play out a bit like the stereotypical ‘empire vs alliance’ sort of stories. Integrating soft power would be the most difficult aspect to make interesting, since it would have to be simplified to have a visible effect for a narrative (see: Macross and how it uses song as a quick and simple symbol of soft power.)
Nice point, although one that I still have trouble seeing after this post. Yes, many of Yang and especially Reinhard’s decisions were based on military/political realities and needs rather than moral/idealism. But at the same time, both of them carried such heavy idealistic baggage, that their incentives are so consumed by their beliefs and morals and I can’t view most of their strategic decision from a sense of realpolitik. As Marzan above pointed out, there were too many points where honor and beliefs dictated their judgment, not ‘need’. Of course, it’s a very ‘human’ thing to do, but when you put that beside the rest of the series’ moral focus it really pulls the rug from any realpolitik that was done.
The trouble is that ultimately, LOGH focused on a moral question between the autocratic and democratic, between enlightened rule and human self-determinism, and not between personal desire (idealism) and situational need (realism).
Psychology and values play a role, but I still disagree. With the disclaimer that theory doesn’t explain everything, I still think the vast majority of LoGH’s content fits into the basics of realist theory. Yang cares deeply about democracy, but realism doesn’t say that states don’t have values or priorities domestically. It just holds that these factors aren’t and shouldn’t be a primary component of foreign policy. The Westphalian concept of sovereignty is basically “do whatever you want in your state, just don’t interfere in another state’s internal affairs.” Born out of the Catholic vs Protestant wars, there was good reason for all sides to come to make that deal. If Yang followed a more liberal bent he would look to expand democracy and try to establish treaties or organizations to attempt to manage conflict (though that is difficult since Reinhard’s goal is the conquest of known space and there aren’t any other states out there to ally with.) But he was concerned about defending his state and its way of political life. His values were confined to the FPA, and even Minci’s attempts to convince Reinhard to eventually adopt democracy had more to do with the preservation of the FPA’s security than they did with spreading democracy for the sake of democracy.
Reinhard is more difficult to fit into pure realism since psychology played a major role in his motivations. But the means he used to try and achieve his goal all played out like a realist. Sometimes this came directly from him, sometimes it was on the advice of people like Oberstein and Reuental to harness his charisma and sense of justice to motivate his forces. Like I said, theory doesn’t explain everything, but I’d argue that most of the actions in LoGH fall within realism’s scope, even when personal psychology was also a major factor. If not always the ends, it was almost always the means.
Thanks to you guys I just recently started watching LOGH. I’m now on episode 85. I’m absolutely stunned at…. the spoilers that just happened a few episodes ago. I nearly cried.
On another note…. the way LOGH pays so much attention to minor details manages to paint one of the most realistic depictions of war and politics I have ever seen. Despite the focus though they also manage to deliver a very deep and emotional story with great characterization. The animation is also fairly nice to.
I have absolutely love this show. Easily one of if not the best anime I have ever seen. Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention.
SIEG KAISER REINHARD
DIE KAISER
Japan is in Asia. It’s next to North Korea and China. East Asian politics is inherently racial and tribal. If you think about it, there is no international political relationship between Japan and China. The two countries have business relationships, and they both send representatives to the UN and major international conferences, but otherwise they ignore one another. Contrast that to America or Europe, or even to Russia: these countries regularly meet one-on-one in high-level diplomatic conferences. When’s the last time you’ve heard of an high-level diplomatic conference between the leaders of China and Japan? Or China and Korea? Or Korea and Japan?
In other words, LOGH does a good job of explaining the EUROPEAN model of international relationships. The Asian model follows different rules.
The Asian model of IR could be more realistic than Europe in times, like the Song-JIng-Xia-Mongol period during 10th~12th century. During the division periods in China, the politic amidst different states were also very realistic, since the religion was often the none-factor (except when used to trigger peasant rebellion). LOGH draws heavily from the History of the 3 Kingdoms, especially in its portrayal of power politic between factions and states.
wait… where is the third part of the essay series? ;A; (sorry to dig up an old post. but the series is too compelling to stop before finishing)
I just posted it, heh. Took me a while to find the way I wanted to word it since it’s a more personal post.
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