Book Review: United States: Walter Lippmann's Philosophy of International Politics
| Author | Gary E. Clarkson |
| Published date | 01 March 1965 |
| Date | 01 March 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000121 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
126
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
the
precarious
settlement
of
conflicts.
Policy should
be
based
on
historic precedent
rather
than
abstract
principles.
He
argues
for
the
primacy
of
politics;
in
particular,
that
politics
must
take
precedence
over
economics
and
military
considerations,
or
rather, that
these
con-
siderations
must
be
seen
in
their
political context.
And
he
urges
that
the
discussion of
international
affairs
should
be
in
direct and
pungent
language;
he
dismisses
scornfully
those
academics
who
shelter
them-
selves
from
contact
with
the
living political
world
by
devoting
them-
selves
to "esoteric terminology
and
mathematical
formulas,
equations,
and
charts
in
order
to
elucidate
or
obscure
the
obvious."
Weighing
American foreign
policy
in
this
balance,
Morgenthau
has
usually
found
it
wanting.
Americans
are
too
prone to make
moral
judgements
when
they
should
have
been
carefully
trying
to
identify
their
own
national
interest.
They
are
easily
led
down
bypaths
of
escapism, hoping
that
a
simple
way
out
may
be
found
in
the
United
Nations
or
in
isolationism,
in
disarmament
or
in
brandishing the
atomic
bomb.
Sometimes
they
think
that
foreign
aid
is
the
answer
to
every
problem;
at
other
times
they
put
all
their faith
in
military
alliances.
They
allow
domestic
considerations
to
influence
the
formulation
and
implementation
of
foreign
policy.
In
his
many
hundreds
of
pages
Morgenthau
gives
relatively
little
attention
to
the
actual
process
of
foreign
policy
making
in a
vast
pluralistic
society,
in
which
there
are
innumerable and
highly
vocal
interests
competing
to
control
a
divided
government.
How
can
one
expect
to
find
a
coherent
and
consistent foreign
policy
in
such
a
country?
Morgenthau
would
simply
answer
that
a
way
must
be
found
if
the
United
States
and
the
world
are
to
survive,
and
the
surest
means
of
finding
that
way
is
through
a
deeper
understanding
of
the
realities
of
world
politics.
Since
these
volumes
were
published,
there
has
been
no
let-up
in
the
flow
of
his
sharp
and
constructive
criticism.
His
adopted
country
is
deeply
in
his
debt
for
this
impressive intellectual
performance.
University
of
Toronto
G.
M.
CRAG
WALTER
LIPPMANN'S
PHILOSOPHY
OF
INTERNATIONAL
POLITICS.
By
Anwar
Hussain
Syed.
1963.
(Philadelphia:
University
of
Pennsylvania
Press.
358pp.
$6.00)
The
appearance
of
a
book
attempting
to analyze
Walter
Lippmann's
thoughts
on
international
politics
is
long overdue.
Lippmann's
subtle
and
often paradoxical
reasoning,
his
great
range
of
interest,
and
the
sheer
quantity
of
his
writings
over
the
past
fifty
years may
deter
the
faint-hearted
but
seem only
to have
stimulated
Anwar
Syed.
It
should
be
said
at
the outset
that
this
book
contains
a
comprehensive, scholarly
analysis
which
merits
the
reader's
thoughtful
perusal.
The
chapters
have
been
organized into useful
and
intelligible cate-
gories,
"The
Nature
of
Man
and
International
Society,"
"The
Organiza-
tion
of
Peace," "Regionalism,"
etc.
The
best-organized
and
perhaps
most
important
chapter
deals
with
"The
Organization
of
Power."
Discussing
the
problem
of
alliances,
Syed
holds
that
"[Lippmann]
implicitly
re-
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