Niebuhr’s "International Relations theory" (though he never wrote a single textbook on it) rests on a few haunting truths about human nature:
By the Cold War, Niebuhr had become a "prophet" for the American establishment. Political giants like (the architect of containment) and Hans Morgenthau (the father of modern Realism) cited him as their primary inspiration. Kennan famously called him "the father of all of us". Go to product viewer dialog for this item. Reinhold Niebuhr and International Relations Th...
Borrowing from St. Augustine, he argued that nations are driven by a libido dominandi (desire to dominate) that hides behind high-sounding ideals. Go to product viewer dialog for this item
In the late 1930s, as the shadow of war lengthened across Europe, a tall, intense man named stood at a pulpit in Edinburgh to deliver the prestigious Gifford Lectures . He wasn't there to offer easy comfort. Instead, he came to dismantle the popular "idealism" of the time—the belief that human reason and international law alone could banish war forever. In the late 1930s, as the shadow of