What Is in the National Interest? Hans Morgenthau's Realist Vision and American Foreign Policy

ABSTRACT

To answer that question this analysis examines the work of the political realist thinker Hans J. Morgenthau who transformed the study of international relations with his analysis of this question. As this analysis turns to Morgenthau, a founder of the National Committee and the chief theorist of the national interest, to define the complexities of the term, Morgenthau read the writings of the founders of America—the Federalists—for an explication of what has become the most important term in the lexicon of international relations. As relayed in this analysis, Morgenthau distilled three precepts underlying the founders’ conception of America's interest in foreign affairs and nine rules that govern the art of diplomacy. They are identified and explained here in an analysis that shows, among other things, the durability of Morgenthau's thought.

Notes

Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York, 1994), 18.

Hans J. Morgenthau, In Defense of the National Interest: A Critical Examination of American Foreign Policy (New York, 1951).

George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900–1950 (Chicago, 1951).

Hans J. Morgenthau, “Another ‘Great Debate’: The National Interest of the United States,” American Political Science Review, vol. 46, no. 4 (1952): 961–962.

Robert J. Myers, “Hans Morgenthau's Realism and American Foreign Policy,” Ethics & International Affairs, vol. 11, no. 1 (1997): 256–257.

Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman, “Ethical Realism and Contemporary Challenges,” American Foreign Policy Interests, vol. 28, no. 6 (November/December 2006): 414.

Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 1st ed. (New York, 1948), 4.

See Sean Molloy, “Truth, Power, Theory: Hans Morgenthau's Formulation of Realism,” Diplomacy & Statecraft, vol. 15, no. 1 (2004): 1–34.

Morgenthau, In Defense of the National Interest, 241–242.

Ibid., 8.

Hans J. Morgenthau, The Decline of Democratic Politics (Chicago, 1962), 47.

Hans J. Morgenthau, Scientific Man vs. Power Politics (Chicago, 1946), 202. Also see Christian Hacke, “Power and Morality: On the Legacy of Hans J. Morgenthau,” American Foreign Policy Interests, vol. 27, no. 3 (May/June 2005): 171–175.

Morgenthau, In Defense of the National Interest, 38.

Hans J. Morgenthau, “What Is the National Interest of the United States?” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 282, no. 1 (1952): 4.

Ibid.

Hans J. Morgenthau, “The Yardstick of National Interest,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 296, no. 1 (1954): 84.

Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 3rd rev. ed. (New York, 1960), 569.

See James P. Speer II, “Hans Morgenthau and the World State,” World Politics, vol. 20, no. 2 (1968): 207–227.

See Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, 3rd rev. ed., 561–567. Also see Greg Russell, “Hans J. Morgenthau and the Normative Foundations of Diplomacy and Statesmanship,” Diplomacy & Statecraft, vol. 2, no. 1 (1991): 130–160.

Morgenthau, Scientific Man vs. Power Politics, 220.

Morgenthau, The Decline of Democratic Politics, 11.

Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, 3rd rev. ed., 11.

Morgenthau, “What Is the National Interest of the United States?” 1–2.

Hans J. Morgenthau, “The Mainsprings of American Foreign Policy: The National Interest vs. Moral Abstractions,” American Political Science Review, vol. 44, no. 4 (1950): 834.

Morgenthau, “What Is the National Interest of the United States?” 5.

See Morgenthau, “The Mainsprings of American Foreign Policy,” 835–836.

Morgenthau, “Another ‘Great Debate,’” 981.

Ibid., 981–982.

Ibid., 977.

George W. Bush, Remarks on Winston Churchill and the War on Terror at the Library of Congress (February 4, 2004), http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/200402044.html.

George W. Bush, Remarks on the War on Terror at the National Endowment for Democracy (October 6, 2005), http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/200510063.html.

Hans J. Morgenthau, “To Intervene or Not to Intervene,” Foreign Affairs, vol. 45, no. 3 (April 1967): 436.

Barack Obama, “Renewing American Leadership,” Foreign Affairs, vol. 86, no. 4 (July/August 2007): 3.

Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, 3rd rev. ed., 4.

Hans J. Morgenthau, “The Pathology of American Power,” International Security, vol. 1, no. 3 (winter 1977): 20.

Morgenthau, “Another ‘Great Debate,’” 987.

Ibid., 977.

John McCain, Remarks to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council (March 26, 2008), http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/872473dd-9ccb-4ab4-9d0d-ec54f0e7a497.htm

Ibid., 976–977.

Ibid., 977.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. Peter Pham

J. Peter Pham is Director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC. He previously held an academic appointment as tenured Associate Professor of Justice Studies, Political Science, and Africana Studies at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Dr. Pham currently also serves as Vice President of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA), which represents over 1,300 scholars of Middle Eastern and African Studies at more than 300 colleges and universities in the United States and overseas, and editor-in-chief of ASMEA's refereed Journal of the Middle East and Africa.