Knowra Hans Morgenthau Hans Morgenthau Hans Morgenthau (1904–1980) was a German-American political scientist and legal scholar who helped establish classical realism as a major school of international relations theory.
Classical realism : A theory of international politics that emphasizes power, human nature, and political judgment. Morgenthau’s work became the school’s most influential modern statement.
Weimar Republic : The German republic established after World War I and ended by the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Morgenthau studied and began his academic career amid its political instability.
E. H. Carr : A British historian and international relations scholar whose work helped establish modern realism. Carr’s realism shared Morgenthau’s critique of idealism but arose from a different historical analysis.
Politics Among Nations : Morgenthau’s 1948 textbook presenting his account of power politics and international relations. This book set out the framework through which generations encountered his realism.
Six principles of political realism : Morgenthau’s six propositions about politics, interest, power, and moral judgment, presented in Politics Among Nations. They condensed his approach into its best-known statement.
National interest : A state’s objectives and priorities in its relations with other states. Morgenthau argued that foreign policy should be understood through interest defined in terms of power.
University of Frankfurt : A public research university in Frankfurt, Germany, founded in 1914. Morgenthau earned his doctorate in law there in 1929.
Reinhold Niebuhr : An American Protestant theologian who analyzed political power and the limits of moral idealism. Niebuhr’s Christian realism reinforced Morgenthau’s skepticism about moralizing foreign policy.
Vietnam War : A war from 1955 to 1975 between communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam, with major U.S. intervention. Morgenthau publicly challenged American escalation, applying realist limits to a war he saw as strategically misguided.
Neorealism : An international relations theory that explains state behavior through the structure of the international system. Its structural account challenged Morgenthau’s emphasis on human nature and statesmen’s judgment.
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