ABSTRACT OF “POLITICS AMONG NATIONS”, BY HANS MORGHENTAU

ð A theory of international politics must be empirical and pragmatic, and not abstract and aprioristic.

ð It must not be based on abstract principles, but on the capacity of bringing order and sense to a variety of phenomenas which otherwise would remain unlinked and unexplainable.

ð Describes his theory according to a (Hobbesian) perspective of highlighting the reciprocal controls as a universal standard ruling every pluralist society.

ð Recurs more to history than to abstract principles.

ð Aims the lesser evil than the absolute good.

è SIX PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL REALISM:

1. Politics, as the society in general, is ruled by objective laws rooted in the human nature.

o To realism, theory consists of verifying the facts and giving them a sense by using the reason/rationality

§ I would say its exactly the inductive theory Waltz denies to be useful.

2. Interest is defined in terms of power, what makes politics a highly rational autonomous sphere of action and understanding.

§ Has a tautological mistake for not defining whether power is a goal or a meaning

o Says that it is useless to find explanations for politics on their declared reasons, because there is a myriad of aspects which turns almost impossible to recognize them, both, by authors and observers.

o If we want to know the political and moral quality of any action we should rather understand the actions themselves other than the political reasons for that

o E.g. Chamberlain had good moral reasons for accepting most Hitler’s first expansionary movements, however, it droves the world to the 2^nd World War.

o E.g. Churchill, however, engaged in the war mostly for electoral reasons but yet his outputs were more positive to the peace than Chamberlain’s.

o E.g. Robespierre.

o The important is not the purposes, but the capacity to succeed in the political action.

o Says that personifying social dilemmas is a primitive thought.

o This capacity depends on the rational skill for undertake actions as well as to understand the rational expectations of the other actors regarding one owns

§ Morghentau admits the existence of rationality failures in human actions, however, he says that even this can be rationality foreseen by thinking in terms of limited rationality.

§ Political reality is full of systemic contingencies and irrationalities, with typical effects over external policies.

· Limited rationality says that humankind does not choose the best option, but by following standards of behaviors.

ð Points out that demonologic thought is still very present in international relations, which means that actions are still undertook regarding divergences on purpose, and not really on action. To exemplify he quotes the Macarthism, Witch Hunt, where US worried about individuals and ideas than properly focusing on the strength of the communist states.

ð A good external policy is a rational one, maximizing advantages and minimizing disvantages and, for so, satisfying the moral demand for prudency and the political exigence for success.

3. Power is a universally valid category, but not with a rigid and permanent meaning. Power is variable for involving the various possibilities of one controlling the other.

o Power is a relation of domination.

o The kind of domination, or interest in dominating varies according to the contexts.

o Says that even the statecentric framework is an output of a particular interest historically determined in our times.

4. Realism is aware of the moral signification of political actions but, still, sustains that universal moral principles can’t be abstractly applied to states action without first being filtered by the concrete circunstances of time and place.

5. Political realism refuses to identify the moral aspirations of a particular nation with the moral laws that govern the universe.

6. Political man must be abstracted from other aspects of human nature and not be regarded as a category above the others.

o Does not neglect that other standards of thought exist outside the strictly political rationality, however, he estates that is precisely by the political language that those patterns turn into recognizable and effective to the undertaken of facts.

o Stands for the pluralist human nature and, for so, defines the politics as the common pattern which shapes the concrete action resulting from the most varied ways of thought.

o Quotes some interventionist examples showing how politics instrumentalized the choice for fulfilling or not some self-help alliances.

ð STATES THAT HIS THEORY MUST BE ACCEPTED TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL WORLD AND THAT THE MOST DIFFICULT TASK ON DOING SO IS TO GO BEYOND THE PSICOLOGICAL RESTRAINS WHICH BOUND US TO IDEOLOGICAL THEORIES AS A DENNIAL OF THE CHALLENGES IMPOSED BY THE REAL WORLD.