Their efforts culminated in Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972. They made the decision to try to improve relations with China, which had been almost nonexistent since the Chinese Communists defeated the U.S.-backed nationalists in 1949. Nixon and Kissinger also sought to exploit the emerging rift between the Soviet Union and China. Realpolitik isn’t only about the justification and conduct of wars. Post-Kissinger, realpolitik meant support for right-wing anti-communist dictators in Central America during the Reagan administration. To Nixon and Kissinger, winning the Vietnam War, or at least ending it in a way the American public would find acceptable, meant taking unsavory actions, including carpet-bombing Cambodia.Ĭontaining communism also translated into support for the dictator and human rights violator Augusto Pinochet in Chile during Kissinger’s tenure. To contain communism meant engaging in foreign policies that contradicted “traditional” American values of respect for human rights and self-determination. Instead, he believes in recognizing the limits of furthering the national interest if policy is circumscribed by idealism. In essence, Kissinger is not arguing for a foreign policy devoid of morality. The art of good foreign policy is to understand and to take into consideration the values of a society, to realize them at the outer limit of the possible.” To try to deal with the fate of nations without looking at the circumstances with which they have to deal is escapism. For me, a sensible definition of realpolitik is to say there are objective circumstances without which foreign policy cannot be conducted. But I believe more suffering has been caused by prophets than by statesmen. “The idealists are presumed to be the noble people, and the power-oriented people are the ones that cause all the world’s trouble. Yet later in the interview, Kissinger sounds like the realpolitik practitioner he is frequently characterized as: It is a way by which critics want to label me,” Kissinger told German news magazine Der Spiegel in 2009. I don’t think I have ever used that term. I regularly get accused of conducting realpolitik. “Let me say a word about realpolitik, just for clarification. Yet Kissinger dismisses the notion that he is or was a proponent of realpolitik. President Nixon put aside his virulent anti-communist leanings in favor of an approach he hoped would ultimately strengthen the U.S. The two men, in the most audacious example of their practice of realpolitik, set in motion events that led to normalized relations with China. President Richard Nixon, guided by his national security adviser and later secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. In the U.S., you can’t discuss realpolitik without referring to the foreign policy of U.S. Realpolitik refers to the philosophy of states’ pursuing foreign policies that further their national interest, even at the expense of human rights, or compromising intrinsic liberal values in pursuit of their interests abroad. realpolitik approach and likely disappoint Ukraine’s supporters. foreign policy, I believe any agreement produced by peace talks between Ukraine and Russia will reflect the U.S. This means that, even as much of the world decries the savagery of the Russian invasion and the intense suffering of Ukrainians, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call for efforts like a NATO-enforced no-fly zone will go unanswered by both Washington and NATO allies.Īnd, as a scholar and practitioner of U.S. troops in direct conflict with the Russians,” Bai wrote. “No matter how unjust Ukraine’s fate, he must continue to reject any measure that threatens to put U.S. In a recent column for The Washington Post, journalist Matt Bai lamented that President Joe Biden “will be forced to take a realpolitik view that most of us will find hard to stomach.” is not willing to risk a larger war with Russia by any level of involvement that might bring Washington and its allies into direct military conflict with Moscow, risking an escalation into nuclear war. The Biden administration’s strategy is moderated by what’s known as “realpolitik.” The U.S. has limited options in confronting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies Huntington-USC Institute on California and The West Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American LifeĬenter for Islamic Thought, Culture and PracticeĬenter for Latinx and Latin American Studies
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