Political Realism
Jun. 16th, 2005 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
groovychkFORGET the sentimental notion that foreign policy is a struggle between virtue and vice, with virtue bound to win.
FORGET the utopian notion that a brave new world without power politics will follow the unconditional surrender of wicked nations.
FORGET the crusading notion that any nation, however virtuous and powerful, can have the mission to make the world over in its own image.
REMEMBER that diplomacy without power is feeble, and power without diplomacy is destructive and blind.
REMEMBER that no nation's power is without limits, and hence that its policies must respect the power and interests of others
Hans Morgenthau from his 1951 book called "In Defense of the National Interest: A Critical Examination of American Foreign Policy."
FORGET the utopian notion that a brave new world without power politics will follow the unconditional surrender of wicked nations.
FORGET the crusading notion that any nation, however virtuous and powerful, can have the mission to make the world over in its own image.
REMEMBER that diplomacy without power is feeble, and power without diplomacy is destructive and blind.
REMEMBER that no nation's power is without limits, and hence that its policies must respect the power and interests of others
Hans Morgenthau from his 1951 book called "In Defense of the National Interest: A Critical Examination of American Foreign Policy."
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