Description
It is commonplace for post-colonial IR to highlight the race amnesia integral to all strands of realism. This paper argues that such generalisation misrepresents Morgenthau’s thought on racial justice in America. The paper explores Morgenthau’s neglected writings in the mid-1960s/early-1970s to reveal that he incorporated racial justice into his conception of the national interest. Morgenthau argued that America was not capable of coming to a consensus over its national interest due its failure to define its sense of purpose. To define the nation’s purpose, Morgenthau argued, each generation of Americans needed to ask themselves anew: what does equality in freedom mean in the present historical context? In the context of his writing, such definition could not omit a key problem in American society: racial inequality. Morgenthau’s critique of American society was precisely in that it failed to negotiate its sense of purpose and grapple with the reality of racial injustice. Such failure was ultimately the reason why America failed in Vietnam. Rather than support Vietnam’s independence, America became a counter-revolutionary force, both in Vietnam and back home. The paper’s contribution lies is not only in setting the record straight on Morgenthau, but also highlighting that Morgenthau’s argument offers superior insights into the problems with US foreign policy today than contemporary realists.
