The Atlantic Realists

In The Atlantic Realists, intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a new interpretation of "realism," a prevalent stance in US foreign policy and public discourse since 1945, and the dominant theory in the postwar US discipline of international relations. This boldly revisionist narrative challenges the view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, arguing instead that it developed through a dialogue between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century and unfolding throughout the twentieth. Specter uncovers an "Atlantic realist" tradition of reflection on the prerogatives of empire and the nature of power politics that developed through transatlantic exchanges conditioned by two world wars, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. His narrative focuses on key figures in the evolution of realist thought, including Carl Schmitt, authoritarian political theorist and Nazi jurist; Hans Morgenthau, German émigré and founding father of the US realist paradigm in the 1940s and 50s; and Wilhelm Grewe, lawyer for the Third Reich and leading West German diplomat. By tracing the development of the realist worldview over a century, Specter dismantles myths about the national interest, Realpolitik, and the "art" of statesmanship.