What Moves Man: The Realist Theory of International Relations and Its Judgment of Human Nature

A critical look at the image of human nature that underlies the realist theory of international relations.

The realist theory of international relations is based on a particularly gloomy set of assumptions about universal human motives. Believing people to be essentially asocial, selfish, and untrustworthy, realism counsels a politics of distrust and competition in the international arena. What Moves Man subjects realism to a broad and deep critique. Freyberg-Inan argues, first, that realist...