War Studies Online

WSO BRIEFING: Morgenthaus six principles of realism

1. Politics is governed by objective laws which have their root in human nature. These
laws are unchanging and impervious to human preference. It is possible to develop
a rational theory of international politics that reflects these laws.
2. The key concept for understanding international politics is the concept of interest
defined in terms of power. This concept sets politics as an autonomous sphere of
action apart from other spheres such as economics, ethics, asethetics or religion.
This concept infuses rational order into the subject matter of politics and redirects
our attention away from things we cannot know, and which do and should have less
bearing on foreign policy, namely, personal motives and ideological preferences of
policymakers. In contrast, practical foreign policy has its own morality, based on
prudence, which may be captured within a rational theory.
3. The concept of interest defined as power is an objective category which is universally
valid, but the nature and form of interests and power are dependent on historical,
cultural and political contexts.
4. Universal moral principles cannot be applied to the actions of states in their abstract
universal formulation. States cannot afford and do not have the moral right to purse
universal moral principles within due attention to considerations of power. Rather
political morality depends on prudence. Realism, then, considers prudence the
weighing of consequences of alternative political actions to be the supreme virtue in
politics.
5. Realism refuses to identify the moral aspirations of a particular nation with the moral
laws than govern the universe. In short, there are no universial moral ethics and no
state is morally superior. States should concetrate on the prudential pursuit of selfinterests, and should be judged solely on their ability to do this. Moderation in policy
cannot fail to reflect the moderation of moral judgment and vice versa.
6. Realism maintains international politics as an autonomous sphere of activity. The
realist thinks in terms of interest define as power, as the economist thinks in terms of
interest defined as wealth; the lawyer, of the conformity of action with legal rules; the
moralist, of the conformity of action with moral principles.
Adapted from Morgenthau, H. (1993 [1948]), Politics Among Nations, (New York: McGraw-Hill), pp. 416