Politics Among Nations

Hans Morgenthau

A Realist Theory of International Politics:

Morgenthau seeks to "detect and understand" the forces which determine political relations among nations and to comprehend the ways in which those forces act upon each other and upon international political relations and institutions. There are two competing schools: one believes a rational and moral political order derived from universally valid abstract principles can be attained due to the essential goodness and infinite malleability of human nature and blames failures of social orders to measure up to rational standards on a lack of knowledge and understanding, outdated institutions, and the depravity of certain individuals and groups. Liberalism trusts education and reform, coupled with the sporadic use of force, to remedy these defects.

Realists see a different world. Though imperfect in a rational sense, the world is the result of forces inherant in human nature. To improve the world one must work with these forces, not against them. The world is inherantly one of opposing interests and conflict where moral principles can never be realized and must be best approximated through the ever temporary balancing of interests and the ever precarious settlement of conflicts. Checks and balances are a universal principle for all pluralist socieites. Historical precedent rather than abstract principles and aims to improve lesser evils than secure absolute goods.

Six Principles of Political Realism:

1. Political realims believes politics, like society, is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature. One must understand society to improve it. Human nature never changes according to this school, and novelty is not a vice nor innovation a virtue. Realism is testing rational hypotheses against actual facts that gives theoretical meaning to politics.
2. The concept of interest defined through the balance of power pervades realist thinking. Only a balance of power allows a measure of systemic order to be brought to the political sphere. Statesmen think and act in terms of interest defined as power. This imposes intellectual discipline on the observer and infuses rational order into the subject matter of politics. A realist is unconcerned with motives and ideological preferences. It is impossible to know the real motives of statesmen due to the allusive nature of psychological data and the distortion in data by actor and observer alike.

Many statesmen animated by a desire to change the world for the better end up making it worse. One should judge by outcomes the moral and political qualities of foreign policies. Good motives give assurances against deliberately bad policies, but they do not guarantee moral goodness and political success. To understand foreign policy, one must be aware of the intellectual ability of a statesman and his capacity to turn his understanding into successful action: political qualities of intellect, will, and action.

One cannot deduce the foreign policies of a statesman from his philosophic or political sympathies. Statesmen will distinguish between their official duty and their sympathetic wishes. Personality, prejudice, and subjective preference, as well as weakness of intellect and will are bound to defect foreign policies from rational courses. A theroy of foreign policy founded on rationality afforded by experience is also aware of the defects in men and their judgments by experience.

American politics suffers from mistaken attitudes. When the human mind approaches reality for the purpose of taking action, it can be led astray by four things: residues of formerly adequete modes of thinking rendered obsolete by changing social phenomena, demonological interpretations of reality which substitute evil people for intractable issues, refusing to acknowledge a troubling state of affairs, and reliance upon the infinite malleability of reality.

The structure of international relations reflected in political institutions, diplomatic procedures, and legal arrangements is often at variance with the reality of international politics. While the fomer assume the sovreign equality of all nations, the latter is dominated by extreme inequality. Anarchy exists because the institutions designed to control mankind do not represent the realities of it. Conflict between states will be resolved when certain persons we have control over reduce the problem intellectually and pragmatically.

A demonological approach to foreign policy exacerbates problems, not solves them. This leads us not to acknowledge or cope with reality. Problems lack easy solutions. Rational elements make reality intelligitible for theory. History does not provide us many examples of completely rational foreign policies, theory can. A rational policy minimizes risks and maximizes benefits and complies both with the moral precept of prudence and the political requirement of success. Foreign policy ought to be rational in view of its moral precepts and practical purposes.

3. Realism assumes that its key concept of interest defined as power is an objective category which is universally valid, but not fixed. Power comprises anything that establishes and maintains the control of man over man. Power covers all social relationships which serve that end, from physical violence to psychological ties. A world transformed will occur through the workman like manipulation of the perrenial forces that have shaped the past, not confronting realitiy with abstract ideals indifferent to laws.

4. There is an inherant tension between moral commands and successful political action. Universal moral principles cannot be applied to the actions of states in their abstract universal formulation, but must be filtered through time and place. A state cannot let itself perish in the name of those who are in its care. Individuals may sacrifice themselves to liberty, the state has no right to allow concerns of liberty get in the way of successful political action. There can be no political morality absent prudence, that is, without consideration of the political consequences of a seemingly moral action. The weighing of consequences of alternative political actions to be the supreme virtue in politics.

5. Political realism refuses to identigy moral aspirations of a particular nation with the moral laws that ogovern the universe. The concept of interest defined as power that saves us from moral excess and political folly. A realist asks "How does this policy affect the power of the nation?