Morgenthau: Politics among Nations

Morgenthau, Hans. 1948. “Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace.” New York.

Six Principles of Political Realism:

1.

“Political realism believes that politics, like society in general, is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature. In order to improve society it is first necessary to understand the laws by which society lives. The operation of these laws being impervious to our preferences, men will challenge them only at the risk of failure” (4).

“For realism, theory consists in ascertaining facts and giving them meaning through reason. It assumes that the character of a foreign policy can be ascertained only through the examination of the political acts performed and of the foreseeable consequences of these acts” (4).

Must approach politics through the lenses of rationality and assume that leaders are operating with a certain amount of rational calculus.

2.

“The main signpost that helps poli8tical realism to find its way through the landscape of international politics is the concept of interest defined in terms of power” (5). This is the connection between the rationality of the actors and what they are striving for. “The concept of interest defined as power imposes intellectual discipline upon the observer, infuses rational order into the subject matter of politics, and thus makes the theoretical understanding of politics possible” (5).

Political realism’s rationality is both descriptive and normative. It is rational for states to maximize the cost-benefit analysis that they undertake. It is also something that should happen if they are to survive. This has nothing to do with intentions, as the example of Neville Chamberlain illustrates.

3.

“Realism assumes that its key concept of interest defined as power is an objective category which is universally valid, but it does not endow that concept with a meaning that is fixed once and for all” (10). “…the kind of interest determining political action in a particular period of history depends upon the political and cultural context within which foreign policy is formulated” (11). “The same observations apply to the concept of power…Power may comprise anything that establishes and maintains the control of man over man” (11).

4.

“Political realism is aware of the moral significance of political action. It is also aware of the ineluctable tension between the moral command and the requirements of successful political action” (12). “There can be no political morality without prudence; that is, without consideration of the political consequences of seemingly moral action” (12). “Realism, then, considers prudence—the weighing of the consequences of alternative political actions—to be the supreme virtue in politics” (12).

5.

“Political realism refuses to identify the moral aspirations of a particular nation with the moral laws that govern the universe. As it distinguishes between truth and opinion, so it distinguishes between truth and idolatry. All nations are tempted…to clothe their own particular aspirations and actions in the moral purpose of the universe” (13). “…it is exactly the concept of interest defined in terms of power that saves us from both that moral excess and that political folly. For if we look at all nations, our own included, as political entities pursuing their respective interests defined in terms of power, we are able to do justice to all of them” (13).

6.

“The difference, then, between political realism and other schools of thought is real, and it is profound…Intellectually, the political realist maintains the autonomy of the political sphere, as the economist, the lawyer, the moralist maintain theirs. He thinks in terms of interest defined as power, as the economist thinks in terms of interest defined as wealth…” (13).

Realism views things in their nature, not as we would like them to be. They focus “political man” as a power maximizer as other disciplines have their own distinct foci.