(Hans Morgenthau's classic text established realism as the...)
Hans Morgenthau's classic text established realism as the fundamental way of thinking about international relations. Although it has had its critics, the fact that it continues to be the most long lived text for courses in international relations attests to its enduring value. Someone has said the study of international relations has for half a century been nothing so much as a dialogue between Morgenthau, those who embrace his approach, and those who turn elsewhere for enlightenment. After 50 years, the dialogue between Morgenthau and scholars from around the world continues more or less as in the past something with more intensity even in an "age of terror." The new edition preserves intact Morgenthau's original work while adding a 40 page introduction by the editors who explore its relevance for a new era. What follows the introduction are the perspectives of a dozen statesmen, scholars, and observers each offering insights on Morgenthau's concepts and ideas as they relate to current crises on every continent. They bring up to date the dialogue that began in 1948.
The Crossroad Papers: A Look into the American Future
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Nineteen distinguished scholars, writers, and political...)
Nineteen distinguished scholars, writers, and political practitioners consider the growing chasm between certain obsolete attitudes and the realities of our political and social life. Ranging over such diverse subjects as "The Future of the Race Issue," "The Economics of Disarmament," "America and the Communist Challenge," "The Case of the Ailing Unions," and "The Future of the Metropolis," they dissect the issues and contribute practical, brilliant, and often original solutions, which may serve as guideposts for the future.
The Concept of the Political (Palgrave Studies in International Relations)
(A growing interest in the oeuvre of Hans J. Morgenthau an...)
A growing interest in the oeuvre of Hans J. Morgenthau and in re-readings of 'classical realism' increases the significance of his European, pre-emigration writings in order to understand the work of one of the founding figures of IR. This book is the first English translation of Morgenthau's French monograph La notion du politique from 1933 (translated by Maeva Vidal).
(By the author from the Preface: "This book contains mater...)
By the author from the Preface: "This book contains material .....published since 1956....I have been concerned with the direct effect of our policies in Vietnam....I have been particularly concerned with the intellectual errors from which stem all our mistakes in Vietnam and elsewhere. They have led us from trouble to failure, and they are bound to lead us from failure to catastrophe if they are not corrected in time."
One Hundred Year Commemoration to the Life of Hans Morgenthau (1904-2004)
(The remarkable life of Hans Morgentau (1904-1980) spanned...)
The remarkable life of Hans Morgentau (1904-1980) spanned almost eight decades and left a significant mark upon the political science of international relations and foreign affairs. Prior to Morgenthau and the writing of his immensely influential book Politics Among Nations in 1947, the training of diplomats and international statesmen was largely in the domain of the study of either history or international law. After Politics Among Nations the study of foreign affairs and diplomacy began to be undertaken as a disciplinary science of comparable stature to the other faculties in universities and emerging departments on international relations across the nation. Today it is difficult to find schools without departments of political science which recognize international relations as having full stature and standing.
Hans Joachim Morgenthau was an American political scientist and historian.
Background
Hans Morgenthau was born on February 17, 1904, in Coburg, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (now Bavaria), the son of Ludwig Morgenthau, a physician, and Frieda Bachmann. An only child, he suffered from the attentions of a neurotic and authoritarian father, and, as a Jew, from the rampant anti-Semitism that existed in Germany even before Hitler's rise to power.
Education
When his father forbade him to major in literature, Morgenthau pursued a law degree from the University of Munich and was admitted to the German bar in 1927. Morgenthau earned his doctorate in law at the University of Frankfurt in 1929; his thesis was entitled "The International Judicial Function and the Concept of Politics. " His research for this project had persuaded Morgenthau that not law but politics was the determining force in international relations.
Career
This insight led him to change careers, and in 1932 he became an instructor in political science at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, just in time to escape Hitler's seizure of power in Germany. Morgenthau remained in Geneva until 1935; he moved to Madrid, Spain, where Morgenthau taught in the 1935 - 1936 academic year.
He immigrated to the United States in 1937, and Morgenthau became a naturalized citizen in 1943. Morgenthau held many academic positions, but his association with the University of Chicago, which began with a visiting appointment from 1943 to 1945 and concluded with his retirement in 1968, was the longest and most important.
During his tenure at Chicago, Morgenthau was a visiting professor at a variety of institutions, including the University of California at Berkeley in 1949 and Harvard University in 1951, 1959, 1960, and 1961. He served also as a consultant to the State Department from 1949 to 1951, and again from 1961 until his death. He similarly assisted the Department of Defense from 1961 to 1965. From 1950 to 1968 he directed the Center for the Study of American Foreign Policy at the University of Chicago.
After retiring from Chicago he was on the faculty of the City College of New York for six years, and from 1974 until his death, that of the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Hans Joachim Morgenthau died on July 19, 1980, shortly after being admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York with a perforated ulcer.
Hans Morgenthau is considered one of the "founding fathers" of the realist school in the 20th century. This school of thought holds that nation-states are the main actors in international relations and that the main concern of the field is the study of power. Morgenthau emphasized the importance of "the national interest", and in his work Politics Among Nations he wrote that "the main signpost that helps political realism to find its way through the landscape of international politics is the concept of interest defined in terms of power. " Morgenthau is sometimes referred to as a classical realist or modern realist in order to differentiate his approach from the structural realism or neo-realism associated with Kenneth Waltz.
Quotations:
"Man is born to seek power, yet his actual condition makes him a slave to the power of others. "
"The statesman must think in terms of the national interest, conceived as power among other powers. The popular mind, unaware of the fine distinctions of the statesman's thinking, reasons more often than not in the simple moralistic and legalistic terms of absolute good and absolute evil. "
"Power positions do not yield to arguments, however rationally and morally valid, but only to superior power. "
Connections
On June 3, 1935, Hans Morgenthau married Irma Thormann. They had two children.