The limits of power: Knowledge, ethics, and foreign policy in Hans J. Morgenthau’s international theory
| Author | Lorenzo Zambernardi |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0047117820935621 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117820935621
International Relations
2022, Vol. 36(1) 3 –22
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0047117820935621
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The limits of power:
Knowledge, ethics, and foreign
policy in Hans J. Morgenthau’s
international theory
Lorenzo Zambernardi
University of Bologna
Abstract
Hans J. Morgenthau’s contribution to international relations and political theory appears to have
been fully recognized to date. However, his ideas have undergone surprisingly little comprehensive
investigation: an attitude that made it possible to grasp only a few aspects of his reflections. The
main argument of this article is that the main area of inquiry in Morgenthau’s scholarship –
international politics and foreign policy – is based on general considerations regarding the role of
reason in politics and the limits of knowledge of the social universe. Not only does the question
of the possibility of such knowledge lie at the root of his considerations on political action, but it
also forms the mainspring of his reflection on ethics. Through an inquiry into the red thread that
tightly links his diverse body of thought on social sciences, ethics, and foreign policy, the article
aims to show that Morgenthau was a systematic political thinker who set out from theoretical
observations on the limits of knowledge to develop particular insights into ethics and, from there,
a particular notion of how foreign policy should be conducted. In other words, Morgenthau
established links of essential continuity between knowledge, ethics, and action.
Keywords
epistemology, ethics, foreign policy, Morgenthau, power
Hans J. Morgenthau’s contribution to international relations and political theory is
described by distinguishing two different research streams: the first one leading to the
analysis of international politics and the second one – of a more philosophical character
Corresponding author:
Lorenzo Zambernardi, University of Bologna, 40125 Bologna, Italy.
Email: lorenzo.zambernardi3@unibo.it
935621IRE0010.1177/0047117820935621International RelationsZambernardi
research-article2020
Article
4 International Relations 36(1)
– to the study of the nature and limits of social science. This view appears to betray a
weak point underlying many of the polarized interpretations of Morgenthau’s work,
namely, the failure to recognize the unity of his thought and to lay due emphasis on the
fact that Morgenthau’s studies on social philosophy are essential for an appropriate
understanding of his view of political ethics and foreign policy.
The main argument of this article is that the main area of inquiry in Morgenthau’s
scholarship – international politics and foreign policy – is based on general considera-
tions regarding the role of reason in politics and the limits of knowledge of the social
universe. Not only does the question of the possibility of such knowledge lie at the root
of his considerations on political action, but it also forms the mainspring of his reflection
on ethics. In this perspective, the present research aims to show that Morgenthau was a
political thinker who set out from theoretical observations on the limits of knowledge
and went on to develop particular insights into political ethics and, from there, a particu-
lar notion of how foreign policy should be conducted. With this I do not mean to suggest
that Morgenthau’s analysis of international politics stems merely from his epistemologi-
cal ideas on the social sciences. There is no doubt that he was an intensely political
writer, whose thought was greatly influenced by his direct, personal experience of the
crisis of the Weimer regime. However, in reflecting on the great political questions of his
time Morgenthau was significantly shaped by his view on the limits of political and
social knowledge. In actual fact, he established links of essential continuity between
knowledge, ethics, and action, all of which are at the center of his intellectual work, from
Scientific Man Versus Power Politics (Scientific Man) to his critique of US military
rationalism in Vietnam.1
Before describing how the article is organized, one point is worth mentioning.
Although the attempt to provide a unified interpretation of Morgenthau’s work may
result in what Quentin Skinner labeled ‘the mythology of coherence’,2 I hope to show
that if we take Morgenthau’s whole corpus, some apparent incompatibilities in his argu-
ments actually exhibit more consistency and coherence than is usually thought. Of
course, I am not claiming that Morgenthau was altogether systematic in his writings. As
other scholars have shown, he changed his mind on a variety of themes and political
issues and also contradicted himself in the course of his long intellectual journey.3
However, the goal of the article is to highlight the red thread that tightly links Morgenthau’s
diverse body of thought on social sciences, ethics, and international politics.
The article is organized as follows. Section ‘Political knowledge’ focuses on
Morgenthau’s critical evaluation of scientism and rationalism expounded in Scientific
Man. By distinguishing his two different critiques on the possibility of developing a
scientific understanding of politics (i.e. the complexity of the social universe and his
attack on the mechanistic worldview), this part is meant to show that some of Morgenthau’s
arguments point to an insurmountable limit of scientism and rationalism in politics.
Section ‘From epistemology to ethics’ will attempt to shed light on Morgenthau’s ethical
position by tracing it back to his epistemological considerations. His perspective will not
only be shown to be greatly at variance with the classical separation of ethics and politics
– generally ascribed to political realism – which reduces morality to a sheer appendage
of power, but more importantly, in this part of the article I try to show that for Morgenthau
what really matters is not the content of morality, but the political context in which
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