scholarly journals Political Realism and the Crisis of World Politics: An American Approach to Foreign Policy

1960 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
Richard W. Van Alstyne ◽  
Kenneth W. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Political Realism

Review of Kenneth W. Thompson, Political Realism and the Crisis of World Politics: An American Approach to Foreign Policy (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1960)

2021 ◽  
pp. 324-324
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Emotionally Disturbed ◽  
National Interest ◽  
World Politics ◽  
High Order ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Clear Vision

Wight described this book as a ‘primer or introduction’ to American realism concerning international politics, with attention to the views of Halle, Kennan, Lippmann, Morgenthau, Niebuhr, Nitze, and Spykman, among others. Thompson highlights continuities with traditional diplomatic theory, illustrated notably by Churchill’s statesmanship and political philosophy. In Wight’s view the book presents ‘original thinking of a high order’. Moreover, Thompson ‘brings out more clearly than some realists the limitations of the “national interest” principle’. Wight concludes that Thompson stands out as ‘a realist of the centre, likely neither to be accused of disparaging morality, nor to be so emotionally disturbed by the consequences of clear vision that he emigrates for Utopia.’

Kuwait's foreign policy: city-state in world politics

1991 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-188
Author(s):  
Glen Balfour-Paul
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World Politics ◽  
City State

Debates on Changes in the Foreign Policy of Contemporary China (A Case Study of the English Language Academic Publications)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-150
Author(s):  
S. K. Pestsov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
World Politics ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Narrative Approaches ◽  
Regional Dynamics ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Academic Publications ◽  
Radical Transformation

Due to a rapid economic growth over the past several decades China has significantly strengthened its international positions. This growth in its own turn was to a large extent due to a pragmatic and sound foreign strategy that the country has been pursuing since mid-1970s. However, in recent years both within and outside China there has been an on-going debate on the alleged radical transformation of the PRC’s perceptions of its national interests, its place in world politics, and its foreign policy. The variety of opinions becomes increasingly complicated as the number of discussants grows and new arguments are adduced in support of different positions. Whereas outside China this debate structures around the narrative of the Chinese assertiveness, within the country the main dispute is between the advocates of a traditional policy of ‘keeping a low profile’ (taoguang yanghui) and proponents of a new ‘striving for achievements’ (fenfa youwei) strategy. The present paper aims to provide a framework for a systematization of debates on the contemporary foreign policy of China in the English language academic literature based on two criteria: whether a researcher admits that the Chinese foreign policy is changing and how he assesses implications of these changes. Such an approach undoubtedly entails certain schematization of the presented views and arguments. However, it differs favorably from traditional, more narrative approaches to conceptualization of the debate since it establishes a clear, transparent theoretical framework aimed to identify the substantive core of the presented views. This, in turn, can bring about a better understanding of the current state and possible evolution of Chinese foreign policy in general. The author concludes that although these debates are far from being over, most researchers admit the PRC’s foreign policy strategy is undergoing a radical transformation. Since the latter half of 2000s there has been a steady trend in the foreign policy of China towards greater assertiveness. At the same time this transformation ensures continuity of the basic principles of Chinese diplomacy. All this means that further debates on the Chinese foreign policy should focus primarily on potential implications of this transformation for the PRC, the regional dynamics and international relations system as a whole.

The National Interest and its Interpretation

1999 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Nincic
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Interest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
Finite Set

This article discusses possible interpretations of the concept of national interest, with a view to providing a conception more analytically useful than those that have dominated the literature. It argues against the two most prevalent approaches. The first, most obviously represented by political realism, relies on a single overarching assumption that both encompasses the national interest and provides a standard for assessing how successfully it is pursued. The second, identifies a finite set of national objectives which, by possessing a large measure of the formal attributes by which the national interest is defined, are considered its proper subsets. While both approaches have their virtues, each is flawed as a method for establishing correspondence between policy and interest. The approach proposed here relies on a different principle altogether—the nature of the political procedure via which judgments about the link between foreign policy and national interest are made. The article argues that our ability to judge whether a policy does serve the national interest is intimately connected to how democratic the decision behind the policy is.

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