Rethinking Morgenthau in the German context

Abstract

After a lapse in interest and popularity, realist approaches to International Relations (IR) have begun to spark interest again, even in Europe. This paper elaborates the origin of Hans J. Morgenthau’s realist thinking. Given his various power-oriented, legal and moral arguments against Wilson’s doctrine of democracy promotion and democratic interventionism, the Vietnam War, and in favour of an Israeli state (3.), my thesis is that there is a primal and entrenched critical and normative dimension in Morgenthau’s thought from the beginning. His particular understanding of international law and morality as limitations of power extends beyond a rationalist and conservative ‘Cold War’ theory about power politics (as Realism is presented in prevalent readings). The core argument of the paper is that the complex relation between power, law and morality inherent in Morgenthau’s thinking, and the contradictions coming along with this (2.), are characteristic of his complete works (Gesamtwerk). In order to deal with his ‘paradoxical’ thinking, we should rethink young international lawyer Morgenthau in his German Context (Erfahrungshintergrund). Surprisingly, less work has been done on the evolution of Realism in the inter-war period (which E.H. Carr calls the “Twenty Years’ Crisis”) in general, and Morgenthau’s life and work in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s in particular which is also neglected in the literature about Realism and the history of IR so far. But, Morgenthau’s Weltbild can only be truly understood if and when the German years in which he was socialized intellectually and politically are considered as the roots (or the constitutive moment) of his realist theory (4.). Moreover, an understanding of Morgenthau’s brand of Realism is necessary to understand both the history of Realism as a 20th-century school of thought as well as the development of our discipline IR.