Hans Morgenthau: Henry A. Kissinger, Henry A. Kissinger.com, July 23, 1980
Memorial Remarks for Hans Morgenthau
Hans Morgenthau was my teacher. And he was my friend. I must say that at the outset because so many obituaries have stressed his disagreement with policies with which I have become identified. We knew each other for a decade and a half before I entered office. We remained in sporadic contact while I served the government. We saw more of each other afterwards.
It is not often possible that one can identify a seminal figure in contemporary political thought or in one’s own life. Hans Morgenthau made the study of contemporary international relations a major and separate discipline. All of us who taught the subject after him, however much we differed from each other, had to start with his reflections. Not everybody agreed with Hans Morgenthau; nobody could ignore him. And on a personal level, he and I remained close through all the intellectual upheavals and disputes of two and a half decades.
To establish international relations as a discipline was not an easy matter in the United States. For the temptation to treat the subject by analogy to our domestic experience was overwhelming. There existed in America a well-developed literature on international law that saw international relations in terms of legal processes. There was a pragmatic tradition of solving issues that arose “on their merits.” There was the belief in American’s moral mission that had produced both isolationism and, later on, global involvement. … [To read the full article, click here]
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The Book That Shaped Foreign Policy for a Generation Has More to Say
FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:
Hans Morgenthau and Political Realism: Hyung Yul Kim, YouTube, Oct. 4, 2021
How to Be a Prophet of Doom: Alison McQueen, NY Times, May 11, 2018 –– In September 1961, Hans J. Morgenthau decided to terrify the world. Morgenthau, a German Jewish émigré professor at the University of Chicago, had already written “Politics Among Nations,” a work that would help define the study of international relations for a generation.
The Jewish Experience as an Influence on Hans J. Morgenthau’s Realism: M. Ben Mollov, Jewish Political Studies Review, Vol. 12, No. 1/2 (Spring 2000), pp. 113-140 (28 pages) Published By: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs —
Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, Fifth Edition, Revised, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978, pp. 4-15 — Political realism believes that politics, like society in general, is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature. In order to improve society it is first necessary to understand the laws by which society lives. The operation of these laws being impervious to our preferences, men will challenge them only at the risk of failure.
‘Tomorrow, the World’ Review: From Isolation to American Empire: Paul Kennedy, WSJ, Jan. 8, 2021 — How fast it was, really, for America to become No. 1. It took a mere five summers—so short a time in the grand sweep of Great Power politics—for a vague ambition held in the minds of a small group of American intellectuals before 1940 to become the firm grand strategy of the Republic by June 1945.
Political Realism in International Relations: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: First published Mon Jul 26, 2010; substantive revision Wed May 24, 2017 — In the discipline of international relations there are contending general theories or theoretical perspectives. Realism, also known as political realism, is a view of international politics that stresses its competitive and conflictual side. It is usually contrasted with idealism or liberalism, which tends to emphasize cooperation.
Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: Peter Graf Kielmansegg, Cambridge University Press, 2013 — German emigration after 1933 and the development of political theory in the United States – does this comprise a single topic?
