As the United States navigates renewed great-power competition, it should return to the foundations of realism, argues @DavidMSacks1.
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What guidance would Hans Morgenthau, the godfather of realism, offer the United States today?
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Read @DavidMSacks1 on how the political scientist Hans Morgenthau introduced realism to Americans—and how his theory could help guide Washington through this moment in U.S. history.
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@DavidMSacks1 reminds us that Hans Morgenthau understood that power shapes political outcomes, but power divorced from moral purpose, domestic legitimacy, and restraint ultimately becomes self-defeating.

“He placed power at the center of his analysis. But he never romanticized it.”

“Power must be a means to an end—‘an attempt to realize moral values through the medium of politics.’”

“Ancient Greece and Rome are remembered because their power served a purpose that outlived their empires: Athenian democracy and philosophy, and Roman law and republican government.”

“Misadventures abroad could boomerang, weakening American democracy and societal cohesion and, ultimately, undermining the country’s international standing.”

“Real power ... lies in the ability to influence a country through consent, not coercion. ... The use of force signifies the abdication of political power rather than its culmination.”

#HansMorgenthau #politicalrealism #powerandmorality #strategicrestraint #USforeignpolicy

The Trump administration has misread Hans Morgenthau’s writings on the importance of power, writes @DavidMSacks1. “Far from romanticizing power, Morgenthau saw the need to tame it.”
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“The United States has lost its purpose, and unless it rediscovers it, discrete foreign policy successes will be irrelevant.” @DavidMSacks1 argues that Washington must return to the foundations of realism:
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If the political scientist Hans Morgenthau were to give Washington advice today, he would “warn against foreign entanglements that undermine American democracy, which remains the wellspring of the country’s power,” writes @DavidMSacks1.
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“If Hans Morgenthau were to witness this moment in U.S. history, he would conclude that the country had overlearned his lessons about the importance of power and erred in equating it with the use of force,” writes @DavidMSacks1.
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If Morgenthau were to witness this moment in U.S. history... he would see a need to rebuild normative constraints on the exercise of power. And he would warn against foreign entanglements that undermine American democracy."

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One of the most important things to remember about realists such as Hans Morgenthau is they opposed many of America’s more foolish wars after World War II, such as #Vietnam, #Iraq, and #Iran. Starting as a lawyer practicing international law, Morgenthau grew disillusioned with its inability to restrain states’ power-maximizing tendencies. Like Machiavelli and some other classical realists, he emphasized the importance of restraint in international politics, but unlike neorealists (such as Waltz), saw morality as the source of it rather than incentives provided by anarchy.

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Thoughtful piece by @DavidMSacks1 (@CFR_org) on the brilliant postwar scholar who authored one of the two most important realist works in the past 80-100 years - @ForeignAffairs: foreignaffairs.com/united-states/…

While the Trump administration has attempted to seize the realist mantle, claiming that its foreign policy is one of “flexible realism,” it has misread core elements of the theory. I explain in @ForeignAffairs with a close reading of Hans Morgenthau’s writings.

“Sacks’ wonderful biography illustrates that Morgenthau’s grimy and sometimes politically incorrect ‘realism’ sprung from the kernels of high ideals.”

From @DavidMSacks1's excellent new book "The Realist," p. 274.

🚨Hot off the press! 'The Realist: The Life and Ideas of Hans Morgenthau' by @DavidMSacks1 is now available at 20% discount w/code REALIST20.

‘Gripping, [the] definitive biography.’@RichardHaass

The first biography of Hans Morgenthau, refugee from Nazi Germany and pioneer of to international relations, now resurgent in global politics.

And register to hear author @DavidMSacks1 launch the book at this @carnegiecouncil virtual event
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"Bombing North Vietnam didn't work, so now we have stopped, hoping the communists will negotiate. If they do not, what are we going to do to them? Bomb some more." — Hans Morgenthau, 1965

Great piece but conflates strategic ambiguity with US policy on TWN independence: "America’s unofficial doctrine on Taiwanese independence allows for 'strategic ambiguity'—in other words, we might or might not protect the island in the event of a Chinese invasion." This is wrong.

In the UK, snag an advance copy of 'The Realist: The Life and Ideas of Hans Morgenthau' at 25% discount w/code REALIST25 here 👉 hurstpublishers.com/book/the-reali…

“For now, Japan has staked its future on the United States, but its continued course depends on the United States also choosing to loudly and publicly embrace Japan,” write @DavidMSacks1 and Nick Snyder.
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“The U.S.-Japanese alliance will not automatically endure forever, and the current U.S. approach could soon drive Japan to lower its ambitions for the alliance,” warn @DavidMSacks1 and Nick Snyder.
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