Reinhold Niebuhr And International Relations Th...
Guilherme Marques Pedro holds a PhD from the Department of International Politics in Aberystwyth. His research interests lie in international relations theory, political thought and international law. He is a researcher in philosophy of law at Uppsala University, Sweden. Previously, he was a lecturer at the University of Beira Interior, Portugal.
Reinhold Niebuhr and International Relations Th...
Niebuhr's contributions to political philosophy include utilizing the resources of theology to argue for political realism. His work has also significantly influenced international relations theory, leading many scholars to move away from idealism and embrace realism.[b] A large number of scholars, including political scientists, political historians, and theologians, have noted his influence on their thinking. Aside from academics, activists such as Myles Horton and Martin Luther King Jr. and numerous politicians have also cited his influence on their thought,[28][34][35][36] including Hillary Clinton, Hubert Humphrey, Dean Acheson, James Comey, Madeleine Albright, and John McCain, as well as presidents Barack Obama[37][38] and Jimmy Carter.[39] Recent years have seen a renewed interest in Niebuhr's work, in part because of Obama's admiration.[40] In 2017, PBS released a documentary on Niebuhr, titled An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story.
Kenneth Waltz's seminal work on international relations theory, Man, the State, and War, includes many references to Niebuhr's thought.[citation needed] Waltz emphasizes Niebuhr's contributions to political realism, especially "the impossibility of human perfection".[100] Andrew Bacevich's book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism refers to Niebuhr 13 times.[101] Bacevich emphasizes Niebuhr's humility and his belief that Americans were in danger of becoming enamored of US power.[citation needed]
Reinhold Niebuhr was a theologian, writer, and public intellectual who influenced religious leaders and social activists in the United States over four crucial decades in the middle of the twentieth century. The Oxford Handbook of Reinhold Niebuhr traces the development of his work through those years and provides an introduction to the dialogue partners and intellectual adversaries whom he influenced and who shaped his own thinking. It deals with major topics in theology and ethics, providing systematic focus to Niebuhr's wide-ranging works that were directed to many different audiences. Later chapters examine Niebuhr's contributions to political thinking and policy making on issues including international relations, pacifism and the use of force, racial and economic justice, family life and gender equality, and environmental concerns. The concluding section examines Niebuhr's legacy and continuing influence.
In the 1950s and 1960s, The United States produced analysts of American politics and history of unparalleled brilliance. Among their number were Richard Hofstadter, Louis Hartz, C. Vann Woodward, and the international relations thinker and Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.
If The Invention of International Relations Theory tells the story suggested by its title, it is not because the 1954 conference achieved its aims as they were understood by most of the participants. The conference may, however, have propelled the assembled realists forward in their efforts to establish a discipline separate from political science and rooted in an understanding of power politics and national interest dictated by the exigencies of the moment. And in this way, it may have invented the international relations theory that guided the thinking of American policy-makers well into the Vietnam era.
because it is a contracting economy which is unable to support the necessities of an industrial system that requires mass production for its maintenance, and because it disturbs the relations of an international economic system with the anarchy of nationalistic politics.
James L. Fredericks teaches in the theology department of Loyola Marymount University. Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University. His most recent book is Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (Metropolitan Books).
Peace activism in the United States between 1945 and the 2010s focused mostly on opposition to U.S. foreign policy, efforts to strengthen and foster international cooperation, and support for nuclear nonproliferation and arms control. The onset of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union marginalized a reviving postwar American peace movement emerging from concerns about atomic and nuclear power and worldwide nationalist politics that everywhere seemed to foster conflict, not peace. Still, peace activism continued to evolve in dynamic ways and to influence domestic politics and international relations. 041b061a72