Hans Morgenthau Research Articles

Biden’s Administration Policies towards the Middle East: Initial Appraisal and Potential Prospect

In light of the challenges, difficulties, and risks facing the United States, and the inherited pitfalls at the local and global levels, this research aims to examine the credibility of Joe Biden’s foreign policy campaign promises towards the region after one- year in office. The aim is to analyze the U.S. behavior towards the Middle East based on Hans Morgenthau’s approach to the pursuance of the national interest at all cost. The hypothesis is that Biden’s Administration will follow a permanent interest approach towards the Middle East which has been constant over long periods of time. The U.S. policy towards the Arab world has remained remarkably consistent across administrations ever since the discovery of the region’s energy resources. This analysis suggests that the desire to shift U.S. foreign policy emphasis from the troubled Middle East to south Asia[i] is a persisting foreign policy objective under Biden. However, the new focus on Asia Pacific and de-prioritization of the Middle East in U.S. foreign policy does not negate the assumption that the region, due to its geopolitical importance, will continue to enjoy and attract significant U.S. attention. Joe Biden’s Administration has been pragmatic in its approach towards the region abandoning the “American values” of democratization and human rights in pursuance of national interest.[i] The U.S.- UK nuclear submarines deal with Australia is an example of Biden’s administration policy to contain the Chinese threat in South Asia. The announcement on September 24th of the Washington Declaration forming a quadrant military alliance consisting of the U.S., India, Japan and Australia to maintain peace and security in the Indian and Pacific oceans is another manifestation of the U.S. new policy to deter Chinese threat in the south Asia region.

Distopia realista - Hans Morgenthau e a mudança do papel das Nações Unidas na política mundial

Abstract This research delves into the way in which Hans Morgenthau had studied and discussed the United Nations as an organisation, mainly during its first twenty years. Drawing on the influence of Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen and on his own personal disappointment with the League of Nations, Morgenthau strongly criticized the UN. The author considers that the organisation propounds lofty principles but harbours old-style diplomacy. After establishing a succinct comparison with Raymond Aron, the article highlights the reasons for Morgenthau’s criticism, including some abiding features of realism, such as the focus on great powers, a limited attribution of agency to other actors and an emphasis on security to the detriment of cooperative activities. It underlines how Morgenthau rejected the UN as a basis to build a world state. It concludes by arguing that Morgenthau’s realism highlights the frailties of the UN but does not explain why states still insist in the multilateral institutions.United Nations, international organisation, Security Council, Hans Morgenthau, General Assembly

The realist science of politics: the art of understanding political practice

Classical Realism represents a science of politics that is distinct from the conventional understanding of science in International Relations. The object of Realist science is the art of politics, which is the development of a sensibility based on practical knowledge to balance values and interests and to make judgments. Realism’s science and its object led to its tagging as “wisdom literature.” This article illustrates that reading Hans Morgenthau’s and Raymond Aron’s work shows how their hermeneutic form of enquiry provides insights into the character of international politics, which conventional understandings do not. Following the example of Morgenthau, the article, first, illustrates how Realism, rather than providing a theory of practice, builds on a science with the purpose to judge knowledge. Realism’s science analyzes the objective conditions of politics, theorizes them, and takes into account the requirements of political practice under contingencies and considerations of morality. The article, second, examines Aron’s take on political practice in the context of the Cold War and politics that built on knowledge without experience to judge knowledge. Morgenthau and Aron’s science helps to capture Realism’s take on politics as an art, how to explicate Realism’s epistemological foundation and value in studying international politics. Doing so, the article, third, contributes to practice theory by clarifying several aspects of Realism’s science. In particular, it shows how Realism captures the art of politics by conceptualizing practice as a form of human conduct thereby offering a more coherent notion of practice than current practice theory.

Religion and International Relations in Today’s Marketplace (or Industry?) of Ideas

The many scholarly contributions by Daniel Philpott beg comparison with ideas of one of the founding fathers of the International Relations (IR) field, Hans Morgenthau, his seldom quoted ideas on moral crisis of modernity, religion, and the crisis in International Relations discipline. Using the distinction by Daniel Drezner between public intellectual and opinion influencer (with academics sadly absent from the latter category), this concluding essay in a special symposium of essays in honor of Philpott encourages him to chart his ideas of the future of IR in general, the subfield of religion and IR, and his future work.

The theoretical discourse of the “national interest” concept: comparative analysis

The article examines the principles of one of the theory of international relations – the theory of political realism – on the example of the works by Reinhold Niebuhr and Hans Morgenthau. In the history of the development of theories of international relations, the theory of political realism was the first to analyze the concept of “national interest” by and large. The protection of national interest is one of the main directions in ensuring state security. The supporters of political realism believe that any state should not be unserious about its national interests. The national interests of countries determine the nature of relations between countries. The national interests are the stable basis of international relations. The formation and development of national relations is influenced by the geographic location of the country, the level of its political, social, economic, and cultural development. Reinhold Niebuhr believes that the nation-state is a community with a specific mission. It is a society that takes on obligations to its citizens, to the outside world. The formation of a nation-state is influenced by such factors as the confidence of citizens in the country within the indicated transcendental activities of the state and the devotion of citizens to their country. He also believes that there are pluralistic, henotheistic and monotheistic types of citizens’ trust in their country. Hans Morgenthau views international relations as an arena of contradictions between countries. The aim of the study is to conduct a comparative analytical analysis of the theoretical discourse of the concept of “national interest” found in the literature. The main areas of research are updating existing ideas about the concept based on new geopolitical realities, considering the theoretical discourse of national interests by providing an expert definition of the concept. The scientific and practical significance of the work lies in the importance of the theoretical discourse of the initiative actors of the XXI century in the active protection of their national interests. The comparative analytical method was used as a research method, since today, due to the relevance of the topic, actors are actively using a new approach. The historical results also show the relevance of the factor through practical guidance to experts and policy makers, depending on the main findings of the study, analysis and concept. At the same time, decision-makers have not lost their relevance not only in the relevance of modern ideas, but also in the conceptual ideas of theorists used in the article. The importance of research is a small contribution to the social sciences and humanities through the theoretical discourse of demonstration analysis. The practical significance of the results of the work lies in the perception of the academic environment and persons making practical decisions as a recommendation. Key words: national interests, political realism, theory of international relations.

The matrix reloaded: Reconstructing the boundaries between (international) law and politics

AbstractInterdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of international law (IL) and International Relations (IR) has illuminated the roles of politics in law, of law in politics, and of the shifting boundary between the two in various areas of international affairs. The boundary itself, however, has proven resilient. While critical approaches investigating the politics of international law have come to insist on the lasting significance of legality proper, IR approaches to legalization have returned to politics. Although the apparent limits to challenging the boundary between legality and politics are not new, we suggest that they are intimately related to another great divide, i.e., that between the state and the international. Together, these two cross-cutting lines have shaped the possibilities and constraints of articulating substantive positions ‘in’ (international) law and politics at least since the Interwar period. Reading these distinctions as intertwined ‘nested oppositions’, this article reconstructs the stylized but paradigmatic debates between Max Weber and Hans Kelsen over the nature of the state and between Hans Morgenthau and Hersch Lauterpacht over the nature of the international. We further illustrate how the same conceptual oppositions still enable and constrain current debates in IL and IR, discussing as examples the creation of states and the justiciability of international crimes. Crossing and contesting the boundaries ultimately reaffirms them as the matrix in which conflicts over states and the international are articulated as legal and political.

Realismo y Relaciones Internacionales: una observación desde la historia de la ciencia y la epistemología

El presente artículo busca realizar un análisis sobre la argumentación de la teoría Realista en Relaciones Internacionales. El Realismo presenta una batería de conceptos para entender el sistema internacional basado en el centralismo del Estado Nación, un sistema internacional anárquico, el balance de poder, y la auto ayuda. En este trabajo nos proponemos recorrer la trayectoria de estos conceptos y preguntarnos si resultan pertinentes para entender la política internacional. Se encontrará que los argumentos que caracterizan las lecturas realistas trasladan conceptos pensados y difundidos en las ciencias de la naturaleza a partir del Siglo XVI, cuyas lecturas de los asuntos naturales responden a visiones mecánicas del universo y se trasladan a la naturaleza humana y el comportamiento político entre las unidades estatales. Dada la prolífica producción de esta escuela de pensamiento, hemos seleccionado para hacer una lectura crítica descriptiva y explicativa a 1) Hans Morgenthau, quien se considera el fundador del Realismo académico, 2) Kenneth Waltz, quien planteó una lectura Neorealista desde una visión estructural, y por último 3) Henry Kissinger a quien se considera un realista como hacedor de política en la función de gobierno. En una primera parte de este trabajo analizaremos el contexto en cual surgieron los conceptos que nutrieron al Realismo. Luego, rastrearemos el origen de estos conceptos que provienen de la filosofía natural que conformó el pensamiento moderno. Finalmente, extraemos algunas conclusiones sobre las implicaciones de pensar lo internacional con categorías y metafóricas provenientes de los orígenes epistemológicos de otras ciencias.

Theory of Irrational Politics: Classical Realist Lessons on Foreign Policy Analysis

AbstractThis article argues that efforts to strengthen the theoretical foundations for foreign policy analysis (FPA) should take as a vantage point the smallest social unit—the human being. It advocates far-reaching engagement with psychology and the life sciences for insights on the individual in the social context. Research on emotion, as a general human phenomenon and one that has been extensively researched across disciplines, is thought to offer a particularly promising conceptual lens on foreign policy. For cues on how to incorporate scientific findings with historical analysis and situate resulting hypotheses in relation to prevailing theoretical paradigms, the article draws on classical realism. Especially mid-twentieth century realists such as Hans Morgenthau expressed a nuanced conception of human agency and the interplay between emotion and cognition. Substantial aspects of their theories, based largely on experience and intuition, have been corroborated by recent scientific research. This review is structured around four central issues. These have been both the loci of much criticism levelled at classical realism and remain a challenge to IR as a whole: the levels of analysis problem, the “scaling up” of emotion, the classification and choice of emotion(s), and the accessibility of the political world to scientific method.

Introduction: Why read Reinhold Niebuhr now?

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) is perhaps the best known North American theologian of the twentieth century. Over the course of his life he was a Christian socialist, pacifist, a staunch anti-communist, and an architect of vital-centre liberalism. Niebuhr wrote on themes as diverse as war, democracy, world order, political economy and race. So significant was Niebuhr’s intellectual influence that George Kennan once described him as ‘the father of us all’. Indeed, from the thought of Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King Jr. to Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Hans Morgenthau to Kenneth Waltz, E.H. Carr to Jean Bethke Elshtain, Niebuhr has helped shape International Relations. Bringing together intellectual historians and international political theorists, this special issue asks whether Niebuhr’s thought remains relevant to our times? Can he help us think about democracy, power, race, the use of force, and cruelty in a moment when ethnonationalism appears ascendant and democracy in decline?

Principle of economy of language and the question of anthropomorphism of state

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper is twofold: (1) polemics with Alexander Wendt’s thesis that state is a person and (2) innovative approach to the problem of anthropomorphism of state in general theories of International Relations.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: How is anthropomor‑ phism of the state present in the language of grand theories of IR? How the language as a system shapes the phenomenon of anthropomorphism of the state in those?”. Research methods: qualitative content analysis and close reading research technique.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Using these research method and techniques, the author analyses theories of Hans Morgenthau, Raymond Aron, Headley Bull, Morton Kaplan, and Kenneth Waltz seeking the presence of anthropomorphism as a feature of their language. He summarises his find‑ ings that enable him to critically engage with Alexander Wendt’s thesis, hence fulfilling the scientific objective of the paper.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: On the basis of the conducted research, the anthro‑ pomorphism of state is a fact of language of the analysed theories.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The author problematizes Alexander Wendt’s thesis that state is a person by pointing out that anthropomorphism of state is not predicated upon the ontological reality of state as person, but on the linguistic rule that language seeks the economy of utterances. Pointing out to this fact is novel, since the literature referred in the article largely omits it. It is an important contribution for all the scholars for whom the problem of the state is a major research interest.

Contextual Critical Theory: Revisiting the Historical Mode of Thought

Combining a theoretical genealogy and a model for the future, Critical International Theory presents a reflexive agenda for international relations (IR). Its intellectual narrative traces critical theory from its roots to the present, and situates the development of critical theory within the wider ascendance of IR theory since the 1950s. Devetak emphatically seeks to avoid a mere description of its emergence, however; his work first and foremost reappraises the archetypal ideas and theorists in critical IR. It also offers a framework for a “contextualist” mode of historical thought, in contrast to a dialectical–philosophical mode that appeals to a sense of universal reason, or a constructivist mode that interprets history through a given theoretical lens. Differentiating these modes and justifying one strain over another demands understanding the origins of each. The first chapter fixes the beginning of the relevant intellectual history within IR at the dawn of the second “great debate”; conflict between classicists and advocates of a positivist methodology, derived from the natural sciences, planted the seeds of critical theory. Devetak argues that critical theory's stature in the discipline emerged in this era, as the parties to the debate sought to elevate the discipline through theoretical abstraction. Thus, the narrative of this period begins with the methodological disputes (methodenstreit) of the 1950s and closes with the release of Waltz's Theory of International Politics, noting the wide adoption of abstraction and theorizing—even by its opponents. Alongside the classicist perspectives of Hans Morgenthau and Hedley Bull, critical theory became such an opponent to positivism within the broader methodological dispute.

Feminismos y género en los Estudios Internacionales

En las últimas décadas, el rol específico de las mujeres en las relaciones internacionales ha recibido más atención y las teorías feministas han ganado terreno en el debate intelectual, lo que ha contribuido a una sensibilización general hacia la incorporación del análisis de la categoría de género en la disciplina de las Relaciones Internacionales. De hecho, uno de los rasgos característicos de la disciplina había sido la invisibilización de las estructuras de género que impactan a hombres y mujeres de forma distinta. Sin embargo, con la irrupción del llamado “cuarto debate” se abrió una nueva oportunidad para pensar lo internacional desde miradas más críticas e inclusivas. El impacto de los estudios feministas tuvo lugar a finales de la década de 1980 con una publicación especial sobre género en la revista académica Millennium: Journal of International Studies. De gran relevancia en la actualidad son las teorías producidas fuera de los centros hegemónicos y que cuestionan tanto las teorías clásicas como el sistema de género occidental por encubrir un proyecto etnocéntrico. En efecto, las teóricas post y decoloniales pretenden desestabilizar los discursos hegemónicos sobre una supuesta experiencia universal de las mujeres. En este sentido, el objetivo central del presente artículo es realizar una revisión bibliográfica sobre las principales escuelas feministas, así como sistematizar la pluralidad de teorías y de prácticas feministas que han tenido lugar en el devenir de los estudios internacionales. De esta forma, tras una breve introducción sobre el surgimiento de los enfoques feministas en la disciplina, el presente estudio realiza un análisis de las aportaciones de las principales escuelas feministas: el feminismo liberal, el feminismo del punto de vista, el feminismo constructivista, el feminismo posmodernista, el feminismo postcolonial, el feminismo decolonial, la teoría queer y el enfoque sobre las masculinidades. A través del examen de estas diferentes corrientes teóricas, se analizará su impacto en la disciplina de las Relaciones Internacionales, evidenciando los cambios epistemológicos, metodológicos y ontológicos presentes en las diferentes escuelas. Las teorías feministas en las Relaciones Internacionales deben ser abordadas, pues, de manera multidimensional, en el sentido de reconocer las diferencias y elementos comunes respecto a las experiencias de las mujeres, hombres y disidentes sexuales desde diferentes latitudes.

Hans Morgenthau and the Lasting Implications of World War I

ABSTRACT World War I was an epochal event that permanently redefined international politics. Yet, there is no consensus about what kind of international system it erected. This article argues that since 1918 to the present day, there is a unique revolutionary/revisionist system in existence. To confirm the argument, this article will revisit the mid-twentieth century writings of political realism's founding father Hans J. Morgenthau. His political thought is premised on the co-constitutive relation between ethics and politics, which characterized international politics throughout the Westphalian era and which was irreversibly lost in the tragedy of World War I. By sketching some of Morgenthau’s main arguments on the political and ethical transformations brought about by total war and total politics, the article argues that World War I generated a revolutionary system indifferent to political and non-political spheres, where insulated ethical systems clash in a kind of “global civil war”.

From Realpolitik to realism: the American reception of a German conception of politics

ABSTRACTDialoguing with, but going beyond the current history of realist thought in International Relations, the article reflects on how German émigrés contributed to the reception of Realpolitik in the Anglophone political discourse in the form of political realism. It pursues the origins of the concept in mid-nineteenth-century Germany, its first reception in the US by American-born intellectuals, and by German émigrés one century later. Focusing on the work of Hans Morgenthau, it suggests that the theory of political realism stands as an inheritor of Realpolitik, as a phenomenon of cultural accommodation, though not without distortions and reinterpretations. Understanding Morgenthau’s experience in broader social, political, and academic contexts throughout this reception process may help to better understand his own contribution to the scientification of realism.

“Don’t Give Up! Don’t Give in!” Gender in International Relations and “Curious” Feminist Questions

“Don’t Give Up! Don’t Give in!” Gender in International Relations and “Curious” Feminist Questions

The 1970s and the Politics of Political Realism

What are the politics of political realism? This paper tries to answer the question by showing the political differences that emerged between the doyens of IR realism theory—Raymond Aron, Hans Morgenthau and George Kennan—during the 1970s. It argues that the Vietnam War and differing perceptions of American military power in the 1970s led these elder statesmen of IR realism theory into myriad political directions. Perhaps the best way to understand the nature of IR realist thought, then, is to focus not just on the theories that inspire political realism, but its diverse political applications, which, in the case of Aron, Morgenthau and Kennan, led to wide-ranging ways of thinking about what the role of the US in the world should be. If we make this move, we would see that Aron, the supposed embodiment of liberal moderation, became by the 1970s the most reactionary or militarist of the elder generation of IR realists.

Realism and reflexivity: Morgenthau, academic freedom and dissent

Primarily known as a pioneer of International Relations (IR) theory, Hans Morgenthau also wrote on a series of other political themes. Especially prominent in his later career is a concern with the right and duty of a theorist to exercise academic freedom as a critic of government power and, especially in this particular case, of US foreign policy. For Morgenthau the responsibility to hold governments to account by reference to the ‘higher laws’ that underpin and legitimize democracy in its truest form was a key function of the theorist in society. Dissensus and healthy debate characterize genuine democracy for Morgenthau who was perturbed by what he perceived to be a worrying concern with conformity and consensus among the political and academic elites of Vietnam War era America. This article investigates the theoretical and philosophical commitments that explain why Morgenthau felt compelled to oppose the government of his adopted state and the consequences of his having done so. For all the vicissitudes he endured, Morgenthau ultimately emerged vindicated from his clash with the political elite and his experience serves as an exemplary case of the effective use of academic freedom to oppose government policy by means of balanced, judicious critique. In the final section I argue that Morgenthau’s approach to theory, theorization and the role of the intellectual in society provides valuable insights into the nature of reflexivity in IR that are of relevance to contemporary debates in the discipline.

State, power and global order

This article examines the evolution of international thought through the notion of ‘political space’. It focuses on two important domains of international politics, the nation-state and the global, to reflect on spatial categories in the discipline of International Relations (IR). Since its inception, the concept of the nation-state has dominated mainstream IR theory. Yet an investigation of how international order has been theorized over IR’s first century shows that this era has also been defined by globalist visions of political order. Nowadays, globalization is sometimes seen as the apex of the historical interplay of particularity and universality. The progression towards global political and economic order, however, is today undermined by the resurgence of state-centric political nationalism which seeks to challenge the legitimacy of the global political space. By examining how past international thinkers including Alfred Zimmern, Barbara Ward, Hans Morgenthau, E. H. Carr and John Herz, imagined and interpreted the relations of space and politics in the national and global spheres, this article suggests that spatial thinking offers an insightful approach for theorizing international relations. The article argues that the global and national spaces attain their political meanings through divisions as well as interactions and connections. The focus on divisions, exemplified in the writings of Barbara Ward, helps to make sense of the modus operandi of power in the national and global political spaces by investigating differences, tensions and instability.

Analysis (Hans Morgenthau) to the concept of power and applied to the units of the international system

The theoretical curriculum in all disciplines is a basic requirement that nourishes the minds of the intellectual and cognitive recipients in the various scientific and cognitive stages. This is the framework that distinguishes the academic understanding of the anarchic, which is one of the most important and important keys in thinking and success in that jurisdiction or field, , Because it is unreasonable and logical to get into the core of any subject without searching and searching for its intellectual and historical bases to find out the reasons and reasons that surrounded this idea which was later recognized as an important contribution to the field of human sciences. Applied Sciences and other from the other side.

“ВЕСТФАЛЬСКИЙ МИФ”: ИСТОРИЯ И КРИТИКА

The article is devoted to the deconstruction of the so-called Westphalian Myth, a set of ideas about the Peace of Westphalia as the starting point and basis of the modern world order. The article is largely historiographic in nature and is intended to summarize for the Russian reader the position of critics of the Westphalian Myth. According to the author, the genesis of the Westphalian Myth dates back to the works of Leo Gross and Hans Morgenthau, who created a concept that formed the basis of the generally accepted history of international relations within the framework of the discipline of IR. Until recently this concept did not raise questions among researchers. However, the 1990s saw a so-called ‘Historical Turn’ in IRs, when historians and specialists in international law and IR challenged the generally accepted concept, after analyzing the text of the treaties of the Peace of Westphalia. The author identifies two waves of ‘Historical Turn’. The first criticized the Westphalian Myth for its inconsistency with historical facts, the second focuses on the criticism of the Westphalian Myth as a Eurocentric construct that does not take into account the events taking place in the rest of the world at that time. Further, the author examines one of the key provisions of the Westphalian myth: the idea of the Thirty Years War as an existential conflict, during which the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs tried to destroy the nation states in Europe and establish a universal monarchy. Analyzing the course of hostilities, the author comes to the conclusion that during most of the Thirty Years War, the Austrian Habsburgs defended themselves and were engaged in suppressing rebellions on their territory and repelling the invasions of foreign troops. The coordination of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs was rather weak, each branch of the dynasty pursued primarily its own interests. Further, the author considers two more claims of the Westphalian Myth: that the Westphalia established a balance of power in Europe, and that the religious factor in the post-Westphalian period was reduced. The author demonstrates that the Peace of Westphalia and Peace of Pyrenees did not mark a transition to a balance of power in Europe, but the growth of French hegemony, which was stopped only after series of wars resulted in signing of the Peace of Utrecht. In addition, the author argues that the religious factor played an important role in European politics until the 19th century.