Realism: Theoretical and conceptual frameworks for analysis

The realist conception of the national interest dates back to Niccolô Machiavelli, who, in The Prince, predicted the importance of the role of interest in international relations. He argued that the prince as a ruler had to be conscious of when and when not to use power (Clinton, 1994). A state’s national interest, which defines the raison d'etat (reason of state) has dominated foreign policy studies since the inception of the nation-state at the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. For Hans Morgenthau (1948, 1985), whose works over several decades continued to dominate the epistemological debate surrounding realism, a state’s primary or principal concern driven by the national interest remains its raison d’etre in international relations. In other words, sovereign states, the dominant actors in international relations (one of the key assumptions of realism), must protect their physical (territory), political (political and economic system) and cultural (historical values and experiences) identities against any interference and encroachment by any other state or actor. Given the anarchic nature of the international system, sovereign states guarding the state’s national interest and values ar e imperative. For realists such as Thucydides, power (military might) which gives a state the means to compel others to do what is in their national interest is an important instrument for the state’s survival (struggle for power) in the international system (Connor, 1984; Crane, 1998).⁹ It is a state’s domestic or national variables that determine its behaviour in the international system. For realists, this provides a clear distinction between domestic politics and international politics.

For the most part of its post-independence history, Kenya hardly involved itself in external military interventions across its territorial boundaries. Instead, its foreign policy and foreign policy behaviour were driven by what has been called "quiet diplomacy" (Makinda, 1983; Orwa, 1994). The deployment of the KDF in Somalia in 2011, therefore, marked a clear paradigm shift in the country’s foreign policy and foreign policy behaviour. Of importance to the country, and this study in particular, was the cardinal responsibility for the preservation of its national interest understood from a realist theoretical epistemology.

In the view of the country’s foreign policy establishment, the state was threatened by the vicissitude of al-Shabaab’s frequent incursions into Kenya’s territory. The incursion by al-Shabaab into Kenya threated the countiy’s territorial integrity and raison d’etre. The Kibaki administration in response invoked the country’s military resources at its disposal to ensure that the preservation of Kenya’s national interest understood in the context of realpolik (power politics) conceptions of stability, was maintained at the national and regional systemic levels. The deployment of the KDF in Somalia provides usefill explanatory value in contextualising Kenya’s realpolitik national foreign policy interest.