Political Realism as an American Tradition: A Comparison of Hans Morgenthau and the Federalists

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-215
Author(s):  
Jean-Marie Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
National Interest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
German Origin ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

For most Amcricans--be they scholars or laymen--Hans Morgenthau exemplifies what sympathetic commentators call political realism and less friendly critics Realpolitik. To the former as much as to the latter, Morgenthau's political philosophy appears as a turning point in the political tradition of the United Stales because of his reliance on national interest and his propensity to "speak truth to power" To be sure, Morgenthau's conspicuous german origin lent weight to the argument. Yet few critics have paid attention to the equally conspicuous fact that among the first advocates of realism in contemporary America.

scholarly journals Towards a critical concept of the statesperson

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Beardsworth
Keyword(s):  
National Interest ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Classical Realism ◽  
Agent Of Change ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

This article considers convergence between classical realism and critical theory in relation to pressing political problems. It argues that the spirit of both traditions can help develop critical reflection on the state as an agent of change. I suggest that too much recent critical theorization has avoided the state in its attention to social movements, but that a critical concept of state leadership is now required to address global threats and challenges. The article rehearses this critical concept in three stages. It considers, first, how the concept of national interest drives statecraft in the authorship of Hans Morgenthau and how complex this concept is both in its own terms and with regard to the political effects of the nuclear revolution. It develops, second, a multi-layered concept of responsibility as the guiding concept of statecraft in a world of increasingly incompatible demands. It argues, third, that these concepts of national interest and responsibility need to be aligned with global imperatives so that a greater marriage between the global and the national is possible. I conclude that it is the task of contemporary critical thought to address this present through a reimagined political realism.

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.

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.’

Political Realism and the Society of Societies

2010 ◽  
pp. 77-89
Author(s):  
Robert A. Schultz
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Michael Walzer ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Political Theorist ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

In this chapter, I examine two theories of transnational ethics: Political Realism and the Society of Societies. The first theory, Political Realism, denies the meaningfulness of transnational ethics. Proponents of Political Realism note that states act in their own interest, and there is no order or principle governing those states other than their own self-interest. I will discuss the views of an important proponent of Political Realism of this kind, the late political theorist Hans Morgenthau. (1993) An interesting variant, which I will call Relativist Realism, holds that there are no transnational principles which supersede the principles of any given society because the different principles of different societies ought to be respected. This version of Political Realism has been developed extensively by the political theorist Michael Walzer. (2007) I will discuss the pros and cons of these two views shortly.

Hans Morgenthau and the National Interest

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Navari
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Politics ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
American Scholar ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

Hans Morgenthau's concept of “the national interest” first appeared, somewhat like thunder out of China, in the essay “The Primacy of the National Interest” as part of a forum in the Spring 1949 issue of The American Scholar titled “The National Interest and Moral Principles in Foreign Policy.” As William Scheuerman observes, “The concept of the ‘national interest’ first takes on a special analytic status in this essay.” In the essay, the national interest is first presented as a necessary corrective to what Morgenthau had already characterized in Scientific Man vs. Power Politics as legalism, moralism, and sentimentalism in American politics, and as a more effective guide to foreign policy than the American tradition seemed able to provide.

Process Philosophy and Political Liberalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Dombrowski
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Static View ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Right

In this work two key theses are defended: political liberalism is a processual (rather than a static) view and process thinkers should be political liberals. Three major figures are considered (Rawls, Whitehead, Hartshorne) in the effort to show the superiority of political liberalism to its illiberal alternatives on the political right and left. Further, a politically liberal stance regarding nonhuman animals and the environment is articulated. It is typical for debates in political philosophy to be adrift regarding the concept of method, but from start to finish this book relies on the processual method of reflective equilibrium or dialectic at its best. This is the first extended effort to argue for both political liberalism as a process-oriented view and process philosophy/theology as a politically liberal view. It is also a timely defense of political liberalism against illiberal tendencies on both the right and the left.

Presentation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agenagn Kebede Dagnew
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Concept

AbstractThis paper focuses on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)’s political philosophy of state and individuals. In this paper , we will see the political concept of state and state’s relation with individuals.

The Swiss and their Neighbours, 1460-1560

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Scott
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Buffer Zone ◽  
The Political ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Political Principle ◽  
Mutual Obligation ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Identity

Renewed interest in Swiss history has sought to overcome the old stereotypes of peasant liberty and republican exceptionalism. The heroic age of the Confederation in the fifteenth century is now seen as a turning point as the Swiss polity achieved a measure of institutional consolidation and stability, and began to mark out clear frontiers. This book questions both assumptions. It argues that the administration of the common lordships by the cantons collectively gave rise to as much discord as cooperation, and remained a pragmatic device not a political principle. It argues that the Swiss War of 1499 was an avoidable catastrophe, from which developed a modus vivendi between the Swiss and the Empire as the Rhine became a buffer zone, not a boundary. It then investigates the background to Bern’s conquest of the Vaud in 1536, under the guise of relieving Geneva from beleaguerment, to suggest that Bern’s actions were driven not by predeterminate territorial expansion but by the need to halt French designs upon Geneva and Savoy. The geopolitical balance of the Confederation was fundamentally altered by Bern’s acquisition of the Vaud and adjacent lands. Nevertheless, the political fabric of the Confederation, which had been tested to the brink during the Reformation, proved itself flexible enough to absorb such a major reorientation, not least because what held the Confederation together was not so much institutions as a sense of common identity and mutual obligation forged during the Burgundian Wars of the 1470s.

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