Realism: A Distinctively 20th Century European Tradition (Trends in European IR Theory)

This book examines how IR's European realist tradition evolved in Europe and, due to emigration, in the United States in the 20th century. It includes an introduction and eight chapters, focusing on historical classical and contemporary structural branches of realist IR theorizing in historical and political contexts in which realist thinking did develop. It reminds us of realist key figures, such as Edward H. Carr, John H. Herz or Hans J. Morgenthau, but also of almost forgotten realists such as Raymond Aron, Stanley Hoffmann or Nicholas J. Spykman. Given IR mainstream textbooks introducing realism as a conservative American Cold War theory, this selection aims to reintroduce realism as a primarily and distinctively European, liberal, normative and critical tradition. A tradition that is almost always misunderstood as a guide for practitioners how to maximize or at least preserve power in the name of the national interest no matter the cost, but that is in fact an argument against reckless and crude power politics, ideology and totalitarianism. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners and students interested in the realist tradition in IR. Alexander Reichwein is Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Political Science at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany. Felix Rösch is Associate Professor in International Relations at Coventry University, UK. Preface 6 Contents 8 Notes on Contributors 10 List of Figures 14 1 Introduction: Realism—A Primarily European Tradition Emigrating to the U.S. 15 Would the European Realists Please Stand Up? 16 Facing Intellectual Ignorance 17 Twentieth Century European Realists: ‘Travellers Between Two Worlds’ 18 Paving the Way: European émigré Realism and American Realist Theory 20 Outline of the Chapters 21 References 23 2 Between Kratos and Ethos: Thinking Through the Ritual in the Work of Friedrich Meinecke 27 Introduction 28 Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism 29 The Ethic of Raison D’État 32 Kratos and Ethos in Classical Realism 35 Conclusion: Meinecke’s Relevance Today 38 References 41 3 Edward H. Carr and Carl Schmitt: Interwar Realism’s Not so Strange Bedfellows 43 Introduction 44 Against Idealism 46 Historical Determinism 49 Pessimistic Elitism 52 Conclusion 56 References 56 4 Weimar in America: Central European Émigrés, Classical Realism, or How to Prevent History from Repeating Itself 59 Introduction 60 Unity in Diversity 61 Diversity in Unity 63 Diversity Beyond Unity? 66 Unity Through Diversity 68 Conclusion 70 References 71 5 John Herz and the Purposes of Realism 77 Introduction 77 European Roots 79 Purposeful Realism 82 Realism in an Age of Globality 84 Conclusion 87 References 89 6 Nicholas Spykman’s Interactional Realism: Irony, Social Theory, Political Geography 92 Introduction 93 Between Sociology and Political Science: A Pioneering Itinerary 95 Spykman’s Enduring Realist-Interactionist Institutionalism 100 Conclusion: The Spykmanian Approach to International Relations—A Source of Reflexion for the Twenty-First Century 103 References 106 7 The Christian Realist Pendulum: Between Pacifism and Interventionism 110 Introduction 111 The Christian Realist Pendulum 111 ‘Father’ Reinhold Niebuhr: ‘In the Battle and Above It’ 114 Herbert Butterfield and Martin Wight: The British Cousins 116 Jean Bethke-Elshtain: The Zealous Daughter 120 Conclusion 123 References 125 8 The Germans and the Frenchmen: Hoffmann’s and Aron’s Critiques of Morgenthau 129 Introduction 130 Hoffmann’s Morgenthau 130 Aron’s Morgenthau 135 Conclusion 140 References 142 9 When Martians Go to Venus: Structural Realism in Europe 145 Introduction 146 Pre-Structural Realism 147 (Modified) Structural Realism 150 Post-Structural Realism 154 Conclusion: Distilling European Structural Realism 155 References 158 Index 162 This book examines how IR's European realist tradition evolved in Europe and, due to emigration, in the United States in the 20th century. It includes an introduction and eight chapters, focusing on historical classical and contemporary structural branches of realist IR theorizing in historical and political contexts in which realist thinking did develop. It reminds us of realist key figures, such as Edward H. Carr, John H. Herz or Hans J. Morgenthau, but also of almost forgotten realists such as Raymond Aron, Stanley Hoffmann or Nicholas J. Spykman. Given IR mainstream textbooks introducing realism as a conservative American Cold War theory, this selection aims to reintroduce realism as a primarily and distinctively European, liberal, normative and critical tradition. A tradition that is almost always misunderstood as a guide for practitioners how to maximize or at least preserve power in the name of the national interest no matter the cost, but that is in fact an argument against reckless and crude power politics, ideology and totalitarianism. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners and students interested in the realist tradition in IR. Alexander Reichwein is Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Political Science at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany. Felix Rösch is Associate Professor in International Relations at Coventry University, UK.