In Praise of Lesser Evils
Can realism repair foreign policy?
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In The Atlantic Realists, intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a boldly revisionist interpretation of realism, a prevalent stance in post-WWII US foreign policy and public discourse and the dominant international relations theory during the Cold War. Challenging the common view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, Specter argues that its major features emerged from a century-long dialogue between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers an Atlantic realist tradition of reflection on the prero...