Hans J. Morgenthau and the American Experience


Book Description

This edited volume covers the development of the thought of the political realist Hans J. Morgenthau from the time of his arrival in America from Nazi-dominated Europe through to his emphatic denunciation of American policy in the Vietnam War. Critical to the development of thinking about American foreign policy in the post-war period, he laid out the idea of a national interest defined in terms of power, the precarious uncertainty of the international balance of power, the weakness of international morality, the decentralized character of international law, the deceptiveness of ideologies, and the requirements of a peace-preserving diplomacy. This volume is required reading for students of American foreign policy, and for anyone who wishes to understand the single most important source of the ideas underpinning American foreign policy since the end of the Second World War.




Power and Transcendence


Book Description

Although Morgenthau, primarily known for his works on international relations such as Politics Among Nations (1948) and In Defense of the National Interest (1951), has been seen as a one-dimensional advocate of pure Realpolitik, Mollov (political science, Bar-Ilan U., Israel) argues that themes of transcendence are very important to his work and seeks to explore those aspects of his political thought that have been influenced by his background as a German Jewish emigre from Nazi Germany. After identifying the Jewish aspect of Morgenthau's work, Mollov uses these elements to attempt to define a Jewish approach to international politics, presumably of primary relevance for the state of Israel. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




Hans J. Morgenthau


Book Description

Hans J. Morgenthau, a founding proponent of political realism, remains the central figure in international relations scholarship of the twentieth century. His book Politics among Nations literally defined the field in 1948 as it heralded the post--World War II paradigm shift in American thinking about diplomacy. Yet when Morgenthau died in 1980 at the age of seventy-six, no one present at his funeral had an inkling about the first half of his life -- his education, his early productive career in Europe and America, or the roots of his political philosophy. In the first and only volume devoted to the intellectual formation of Morgenthau, Christoph Frei draws upon an overwhelming abundance of resources -- including a lengthy paper trail of previously unseen diaries, correspondence, notes, and manuscripts -- to disclose the compelling story of a great mind in the making. Frei identifies the bases of Morgenthau's ideas and clarifies many misconceptions, including Morgenthau's link with Augustinian thought, his relationship with Reinhold Niebuhr, and the impact of major thinkers such as Max Weber, Hans Kelsen, and Carl Schmitt on the scholar. He offers incontrovertible evidence of Friedrich Nietzsche's predominant influence on Morgenthau. Resoundingly praised in the original German, Hans J. Morgenthau is a brilliant life study that presents the first coherent picture of the European intellectual building blocks Morgenthau brought with him to America.




The Purpose Of American Polities


Book Description

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.




The Vietnam War Debate


Book Description

Background to a needless war -- Morgenthau and Bundy : the Harvard dean fails the Vietnam reality test -- Media neglect of the national interest -- Morgenthau and Schlesinger and the national interest -- Morgenthau and the Council on Foreign Relations -- Morgenthau's influence, Fulbright's conversion and the stupidity of smart men -- "What I have said recently, I have been saying for years without anybody paying attention.




The Atlantic Realists


Book Description

In The Atlantic Realists, intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a boldly revisionist interpretation of "realism," a prevalent stance in post-WWII US foreign policy and public discourse and the dominant international relations theory during the Cold War. Challenging the common view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, Specter argues that its major features emerged from a century-long dialogue between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers an "Atlantic realist" tradition of reflection on the prerogatives of empire and the nature of power politics conditioned by fin de siècle imperial competition, two world wars, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Focusing on key figures in the evolution of realist thought, including Carl Schmitt, Hans Morgenthau, and Wilhelm Grewe, this book traces the development of the realist worldview over a century, dismantling myths about the national interest, Realpolitik, and the "art" of statesmanship.




An Analysis of Hans J. Morgenthau's Politics Among Nations


Book Description

Hans Morgenthau’s Politics Among Nations is a classic of political science, built on the firm foundation of Morgenthau’s watertight reasoning skills. The central aim of reasoning is to construct a logical and persuasive argument that carefully organizes and supports its conclusions – often around a central concept or scheme of argumentation. Morgenthau’s subject was international relations – the way in which the world’s nations interact, and come into conflict or peace – a topic which was of vital importance during the unstable wake of the Second World War. To the complex problem of understanding the ways in which the post-war nations were jostling for power, Morgenthau brought a comprehensive schema: the concept of “realism” – or, in other words, the idea that every nation will act so as to maximise its own interests. From this basis, Morgenthau builds a systematic argument for a pragmatic approach to international relations in which nations seeking consensus should aim for a balance of power, grounding relations between states in understandings of how the interests of individual nations can be maximized. Though seismic shifts in international politics after the Cold War undeniably altered the landscape of international relations, Morgenthau’s dispassionate reasoning about the nature of our world remains influential to this day.




Hans J. Morgenthau's Theory of International Relations


Book Description

This book provides an innovative interpretation of Hans J. Morgenthau's contribution to international relations, and argues that the concepts of meaning, power as meaning imposition, disenchantment and re-enchantment are central to Morgenthau's theory.




Morgenthau, Law and Realism


Book Description

Although he is widely regarded as the 'founding father' of realism in International Relations, this book argues that Hans J. Morgenthau's legal background has largely been neglected in discussions of his place in the 'canon' of IR theory. Morgenthau was a legal scholar of German-Jewish origins who arrived in the United States in 1938. He went on to become a distinguished professor of Political Science and a prominent commentator on international affairs. Rather than locate Morgenthau's intellectual heritage in the German tradition of 'Realpolitik', this book demonstrates how many of his central ideas and concepts stem from European and American legal debates of the 1920s and 1930s. This is an ambitious attempt to recast the debate on Morgenthau and will appeal to IR scholars interested in the history of realism as well as international lawyers engaged in debates regarding the relationship between law and politics, and the history of International Law.




Exercise of Power


Book Description

From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 bestselling memoir, Duty, a candid, sweeping examination of power, and how it has been exercised, for good and bad, by American presidents in the post-Cold War world. Since the end of the Cold War, the global perception of the United States has progressively morphed from dominant international leader to disorganized entity. Robert Gates argues that this transformation is the result of the failure of political leaders to understand the complexity of American power, its expansiveness and its limitations. He makes clear that the successful exercise of power is not limited to the ability to coerce or demand submission, but must also encompass diplomacy, strategic communications, development assistance, intelligence, technology, and ideology. With forthright judgments of the performance of past presidents and their senior-most advisers, insightful ­firsthand knowledge, and compelling insider stories, Gates’s candid, sweeping examination of power in all its manifestations argues that U.S. national security in the future will require abiding by the lessons of the past, reimagining our approach, and revitalizing nonmilitary instruments of power essential to success and security.