The Realist w/ David M. Sacks

Join David M. Sacks, author of The Realist: The Life and Ideas of Hans Morgenthau for a discussion with Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal, whose own book Righteous Realists examined how Morgenthau and other postwar realists confronted the ethical questions of the nuclear age. Together, they will discuss Morgenthau’s legacy and the continued relevance of his work.

About the book

‘International politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power.’ Hans Morgenthau wrote these words in 1948, as Soviet–American wartime cooperation deteriorated into tense post-war rivalry. His Politics Among Nations quickly became the defining international relations textbook. Henry Kissinger said, ‘All of us who taught the subject after him, however much we differed from one another, had to start with his reflections.’

Morgenthau’s realism stemmed from his traumatic experiences in interwar Germany. Amid rampant anti-Semitism, his classmates ostracised and spat at him. He saw Hitler break the law with impunity when he marched on Morgenthau’s hometown, Coburg. Morgenthau concluded that abstract ideals offered no protection: power only yielded to countervailing power. Fleeing to the US in 1937, his influential thought drove Cold War foreign-policy debates. As his peers backed the Vietnam War, Morgenthau dismantled the case for intervention on realist grounds.

Meticulously researched and masterfully written, The Realist shows the enduring relevance of Morgenthau’s ideas in our age of international disorder and great power competition.

About the author

David M. Sacks is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. An expert on China and Taiwan, he has written for outlets including Foreign Affairs and Time. His research and commentary have also been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and on the BBC. He lives in New York with his wife and two daughters.