E.H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau

E.H. Carr would have described Hans Morgenthau’s work as too much realism and too little utopianism to be truly valuable. In evidence of this point this essay will examine exerts from Carr’s The Twenty Years’ Crisis: 1919-1939 and Hans Morgenthau’s Politics Among Nations. The essay will centre around three key themes, the role of utopianism and its relation to realism, realism as a commitment to life as we know it and the concept of value. Further to this point the essay will consider to whom Morgenthau’s work would be considered valuable, whether it be for the discipline or for those entrusted with state protection and diplomacy. It will be concluded that in line with Carr’s thinking, Morgenthau simply forgot the importance of utopianism in the development of international relations as a political science. Rather Morgenthau sought to focus on the second development phase of the discipline that is the practicalities and solutions to interacting in the international arena.

The role of utopianism and its relation to realism sets the course for the development of the discipline of international relations and Carr’s thinking. Forming distinct stages in expansion thinking around these issues, utopianism develops the aspirations of the discipline to end war and end the need to recourse to arms in the international arena. Realism according to Carr is the point at which the discipline “acquired sufficient humility not to consider itself omnipotent and to distinguish the analysis of what it is from the aspiration about what it should be” (Carr p. 9). The inescapable realisation of what the world is and how it works is where realism functions; it is the next essential ingredient in this approach to the study of international relations. Ca...

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...be acutely aware of the purpose of the discipline and any attempts at policy development; to stop war and ensure peaceful interactions between state actors. For Carr the “desire to cure the sicknesses of the body politic has given its impulse and its inspiration to political science. Purpose, whether we are conscious of it or not, is a condition of thought” (Carr p. 3). Morgenthau’s reliance on what Carr called realism lost him sight of the ultimate purpose of the discipline, to stop war. A consideration of utopian thought, despite its naivety for solution development, ensures the focus.

References

EH Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis: 1919-1939, London, Macmillan, 1939/1995, Chapters 1 & 2.

Hans Morganthau, Politics Among Nations, 5th edition (revised), Alfred Knopf, New York, 1978.

First published in 1949 and is available in various editions. pp.3-17