POLI 243 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Reinhold Niebuhr, Kenneth Waltz, Hans Morgenthau
23 Dec 2012
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Document Summary
Modern ir began in the wake of wwi. Because of the scale of devastation and loss of life endured during the war, scholars became interested in developing predictive and prescriptive theories. Idealists looked to legal philosophy and legal studies for inspiration. They saw that laws influence the way people act; therefore, if one modifies the laws, one can also modify the behaviour of people. Thus, idealists stressed the potential for international law to bring about international peace. Idealists also stressed choice, rationality, and the potential or actual existence of a harmony of interests between people. They also emphasized the normative goal of peace. Idealists were considered to be utopian and unrealistic (note the pejorative connotations associated with those words today) by their realist critics. Realists assumed that humans were basically selfish, greedy, and interested in dominating each other. Reinhold niebuhr drew upon christianity, arguing that man was tainted by sin, and that human behaviour could never be perfected.
