Session 5- Rational Realism

Morgenthau’s contribution towards the understanding of the realist theory is very useful. His work focuses on the fundamental principles of political realism and lays a foundation for those wanting to study the field of International Relations from a realist’s perspective.

He goes on to compare realism with idealism which is the belief that reality as we can know it is basically mentally constructed and immaterial. Hence humans have morals and are good creatures who wish for each others well being. However, realism states the exact opposite. Realists believe that humans are selfish beings who do immoral acts and hence Morgenthau believes that the world should be viewed from realist lens as it enables us to look at things more rationally. However, I do not entirely agree with this idea because it is hard to define what exactly comes under the category of rationality because the term reality is also a product of socially constructed ideas.

Moreover, he suggested that instead of looking at the intentions of people or statesmen we should look at their actions and their capability of leading the nation and making political decisions. He goes on to say that ‘[p]olitical realism refuses to identify moral aspirations of a particular nation’. However, I do not agree with this phenomenon because morals determine intentions which eventually lead to actions. For example, Hitler managed to make Germany strong after it had been stripped off most of its resources, land and army under the Treaty of Versailles which shows that he was capable of leading the country. However, he was over ambitious and wanted to make Germany a super power and he believed the only way this could be done was through conquering more land. Therefore, because of his obsession with lebensraum (living space) he went on to invade Czechoslovakia which caused the Second World War. 

Therefore, from this it can be concluded that one’s intentions do matter as they influence policy making. Therefore, in conclusion I believe that although Morgenthau has given good arguments in favor of realism, some of his points contradict one another and give rise to criticism.