Session 7: A Great Debate

Morgenthau in his article the ‘Great Debate’ explains the self interested, power seeking nature of states as a byproduct of the basic differences between human nature and politics. He goes on to arrange interests into three groupings namely sub national, other national and supranational, which in turn influence the national interest.  

Morgenthau in his article the ‘Great Debate’ explains the self interested, power-seeking nature of states as a byproduct of the basic differences between human nature and politics. However ‘national interest’ is then open to manipulation by those in power or important interest groups. Those in power have tools at their disposable such as a biased media to influence the citizenry to accept that the interests being promoted by them are indeed the national interests. This is a powerful weapon, which can be used to justify the United States interventions and invasions into other countries, which have been portrayed as ‘ hostile’ or ‘threatening.’

 Morgenthau is of the view that events in history need to be analyzed both logically and critically to help understand the foreign policy of the United States, including the presentation to the public of foreign policy rooted in moral grounds, in order to gain mass consent for the interests of those in power. Too often a states national interests cannot align with the global interests, due to the fact that the latter are usually determined by the ruling bloc and also because it Is the nature of nation states to compete for power and self preservation.