Political Realism

Political realism like the general society considers that politics is administered by unbiased laws that have their aims inherent in human nature. Human nature in which the guidelines of politics have their base has not changed since the traditional philosophies of China, India and Greece. The primary indication that assists political realism to find its way into international politics is the concept of interests defined regarding power. This idea provides the connection between reason trying to understand international politics and the facts to be known. The assumption that statesmen think and act concerning interests defined by power holds and is evidenced by history.

Realism assumes that its primary concept of interest outlined as power is an objective grouping that is collectively valid but it does not provide that concept with a meaning that is fixed once and for all. The impression of interest is of importance to politics and is unaffected by the situation of place and time (Morgenthau, 1972). The knowledge of human nature will show that with the greater part of humanity, the governing principle is interest and it influences every man more or less. Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interests.

Political realism is aware of the moral implication of political action. Realism maintains that universal moral doctrines cannot apply to the actions of states in their abstract universal formulation but that they must filter through the concrete circumstances of time and place. Political realism refuses to identify the moral objectives of a particular nation with the moral laws that govern the universe (Morgenthau, 1972).