The viewpoint you’re describing is the realist school of international relations. Realism basically treats states as agents, with two main branches—Classical realism, which treats states as human-like agents, and Neorealism, which treats states as selfish rational agents.
The viewpoint you’re describing is the realist school of international relations. Realism basically treats states as agents, with two main branches—Classical realism, which treats states as human-like agents, and Neorealism, which treats states as selfish rational agents.
Unfortunately, I don’t actually know any more about this topic than that, so I don’t have any good books on the subject. However, sometimes knowing the name is half the battle. I learned what I do know from: https://acoup.blog/2021/05/07/collections-teaching-paradox-europa-universalis-iv-part-ii-red-queens/