Description
Georg Schwarzenberger’s works stand out from those of other classical realists through their focus on the nature of international law, its problems, and its relation to power politics and international society. He was widely regarded as a preeminent member of the realist school and his works were compared to those of Carr, Morgenthau, and Schuman. The incisiveness, range, depth, and encyclopedic propensities of his conclusions appear as common features in the great majority of the published reviews of his works. Despite this prominence, however, Schwarzenberger has been all but forgotten by current IR literature, and his importance as a theorist has been vastly underestimated. This paper explores Schwarzenberger’s forgotten theory of IR. Through a detailed examination of his works, it unveils the ethical component of his realist theory and works. It does this by examining his analysis of international morality and the standard of civilisation and their effect on the development and application of international law. In doing this, the paper points to and reveals the conflicting and joint roles of international ethics and power politics on state policy and international law.
