Stanley Hoffmann’s Critique of Hans Morgenthau’s Political Realism

This article begins by arguing that Raymond Aron’s interest in the burgeoning field of international relations theory was fundamentally motivated by the attempt to provide an alternative to Hans Morgenthau’s Politics Among Nations. Throughout his book Paix et guerre Aron expressed a consistent worry that Morgenthau’s political realism was too influenced by a dangerous strain of German power politics which he identified with the thought of Carl Schmitt. The article, then, suggests that Morgenthau, frustrated by Aron’s accusations, perhaps played a key role in preventing Paix et guerre from having the type of American reception that Aron had anticipated. It concludes by suggesting that Stanley Hoffmann’s early forays of the 1950s and 1960s into international relations realism theory were fundamentally inspired by Aron’s thinking on the matter, which best explains why he proved so critical of Morgenthau’s theory of international relations.