| There are different ways of looking at the state of | | | | Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the classic |
| the world. Accordingly when it comes to international | | | | idealist-realist debate, neither side normally accords |
| affairs, leaders propose differing foreign policies to | | | | the other much space. In his new analysis, however, |
| make and preserve peace for their nations. The two | | | | Kissinger notes that "in relations between the United |
| most common approach of ideas are idealism and | | | | States and Western Europe and within the Western |
| realism, and their offspring, neoliberalism and | | | | Hemisphere, America's historic ideals have |
| neorealism, are illustrated by two former Harvard | | | | considerable applicability. Here the idealist version of |
| professors and leaders in U.S. government, Henry | | | | peace based on democracy and economic progress |
| Kissinger and Robert McNamara. As secretary of | | | | demonstrates its relevance." He also notes that the |
| defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, | | | | current complexity of the international system |
| McNamara was in the forefront of America's | | | | "renders much of the traditional American debate |
| involvement in Vietnam. By 1966, however, he was | | | | about the nature of international politics somewhat |
| beginning to question America's role, and in his later | | | | irrelevant. Whether it is values or power, ideology or |
| years he has repudiated the support he gave to the | | | | raison d'état that are the key determinants of |
| war effort, believing that the disastrous conflict | | | | foreign policy, in fact depends on the historical stage |
| escalated largely as the result of misperception on | | | | in which the international system finds itself." THE |
| both sides. In other words, in his opinion, America | | | | CENTRAL ISSUE At the root of the idealist-realist |
| need not have intervened in the way that she did. If | | | | debate is a truth that never goes away and that |
| he could turn back the clock, he would seek peace | | | | neither side ignores--they just approach it from |
| on different terms. He would not make the costly | | | | different perspectives: Human nature is the fly in the |
| commitment to bloodshed that occurred on all sides. | | | | ointment. Realists hold an essentially pessimistic view |
| He would find the opening to promote a moral | | | | of human nature. Idealists share a belief in its |
| commitment to end the war quickly. Today | | | | essential goodness. Henry Kissinger would say that's |
| McNamara, having been president of the World Bank | | | | exactly why idealistic notions of peace through |
| in the interim, is devoted to the cause of reducing | | | | morality will fail. You just can't expect humans, and |
| the risk of conflict, killing and catastrophe in the 21st | | | | therefore the nations they represent, to be anything |
| century. His new book, coauthored with international | | | | but self-interested. The idealist Robert McNamara |
| relations professor James Blight, is titled Wilson's | | | | would say that without imposing a moral curb on |
| Ghost in reference to the prescriptions for peace of | | | | human nature we will see more people killed in the |
| America's First World War president. Woodrow | | | | 21st century than in the overwhelmingly violent 20th, |
| Wilson was an idealist who believed that moral issues | | | | when multiple millions died in war, most of them |
| should dominate in policy making. Essentially it was | | | | civilians. So we must pursue prescriptions for peace |
| the president's efforts at peacemaking that provided | | | | based on the morality of avoiding such catastrophic |
| the way out for Germany in a peace without victory. | | | | wars. If human nature is the problem, how to deal |
| Wilson's subsequent tireless work aimed at | | | | with it is the issue. The history of society's attempts |
| establishing the League of Nations inspires McNamara | | | | to do so does not give much cause for hope. We |
| and Blight; in it they see the only way ahead to a | | | | must admit that no method of taming human nature |
| peaceful future for a planet still living in the nuclear | | | | has yet been found. According to one source, in the |
| shadow. Like Blight, Kissinger also has a background in | | | | past 6,000 years humanity has experienced only 300 |
| political science. In the 1960s he was a professor of | | | | years of global peace. Albert Einstein famously said |
| government at Harvard. Best known for his years as | | | | that it is easier to denature plutonium than to change |
| Richard Nixon's assistant for National Security Affairs | | | | human nature. Could it be that we are seeking an |
| and subsequently as secretary of state, he was | | | | answer that cannot come from the human level? Can |
| inevitably also embroiled in the Vietnam War. At first | | | | human nature be curbed from our own resources? |
| a hard-liner in the prosecution of the war, he went | | | | What exactly is human nature, and what is its origin? |
| on to win the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize along with | | | | THE TRUTH ABOUT US In religion and the Bible, a |
| North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho (who | | | | relevant question can be answered from the New |
| refused the award) in recognition of the cease-fire | | | | Testament: "Do you know where your fights and |
| agreement they reached. Nevertheless, Kissinger is a | | | | arguments come from?" The answer in the apostle |
| realist in the tradition of another U.S. president, | | | | James's words: "They come from the selfish desires |
| Theodore Roosevelt (see "Mentors of Modern Men"). | | | | that war within you. You want things, but you do not |
| PRAGMATICS AND PRINCIPLES In their efforts to | | | | have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous |
| ensure security for all society, realists pursue policy | | | | of other people, but you still cannot get what you |
| options based on the ebb and flow of power within | | | | want. So you argue and fight" (James 4:1-2, New |
| the international system of nations. In his new book, | | | | Century Version). Here human nature is shown to be |
| Does America Need a Foreign Policy? Kissinger says | | | | essentially selfish. Though it is sometimes able to do |
| it's vitally important that, as the only superpower, | | | | good for unrelated others, it is identified with the |
| America decide on its interests and also on where it | | | | protection, preservation and extension of the self |
| should and should not intervene. This is an approach | | | | and its immediate world. Whatever is needed to |
| driven by pragmatics first and foremost. For | | | | accomplish these ends motivates humans from |
| Kissinger, it's not so much a question of universal | | | | infancy on. We might say that at birth human beings |
| moral and ethical principles; it is primarily a question of | | | | are in a neutral condition, demonstrating neither good |
| taking care of America's national interests in a world | | | | nor evil desires. While the newborn feebly seeks out |
| compromised by human nature's inherent pursuit of | | | | food to survive, and has some drive to do so, it is |
| power. Idealism, on the other hand, believes that | | | | ill-equipped to challenge anyone for that food or to |
| mutual interest creates a natural harmony between | | | | share it. The aggressive and possessive impulse |
| nations. Its proponents support the development of | | | | comes with time. A growing selfishness develops as |
| international structures and organizations to limit any | | | | we mature. Through socialization we may learn to |
| nation-state's irresponsible quest for power. In | | | | control this selfishness, but it almost always |
| neoliberal fashion, the idealist McNamara adds that the | | | | reappears, given certain circumstances. The Western |
| world is more interdependent than the old European | | | | world has had the benefit of the Judeo-Christian |
| world of independent nation-states. Modern idealists | | | | tradition, which teaches what human nature is and |
| point to the Internet, the mass media, the shared | | | | how it can be changed. Jesus of Nazareth had this to |
| environment, and globalized trade and investment as | | | | say about our basic state of mind: "From within, out |
| evidence of a different and more integrated world--a | | | | of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, |
| world anxious to promote peace by nonmilitary | | | | adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, |
| means. The power politician acknowledges these | | | | covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil |
| contemporary realities but does not believe they are | | | | eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things |
| the fundamental keys to peace. For the idealist, on | | | | come from within and defile a man" (Mark 7:21-23). |
| the other hand, it's not just about national interest | | | | From this biblical perspective, the achievable ideal is |
| and "power-balancing" between nations. McNamara | | | | that nations put down their weapons of war while at |
| points to the ability of nations to cooperate at times | | | | the same time learning new ways of thinking. This |
| for their mutual benefit. This, he believes, proves that | | | | prescription for peace is found in another prophetic |
| peace can be achieved without war. Only as a last | | | | passage from the book of Isaiah--words that are |
| resort does the idealist use force, and even then, in | | | | carved into the base of the familiar statue outside |
| most cases, it is by multilateral agreement in the | | | | the UN building in New York: "He shall judge between |
| international sphere. CAUSES FOR CONCERN | | | | the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat |
| McNamara's fears of the future arise from the | | | | their swords into plowshares, and their spears into |
| catastrophic loss of life that occurred in the century | | | | pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against |
| just past. Wilson's Ghost calls up the specter of the | | | | nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isaiah |
| moralist president in the role of prophet. Following the | | | | 2:4). It is a confirmation of the philosophy and ideas |
| war in 1919, Wilson said: "Liberalism must be more | | | | of Woodrow Wilson that the successor to his |
| liberal than ever before, it must even be radical, if | | | | League of Nations accepted the gift of a statue with |
| civilization is to escape the typhoon. . . . I do not | | | | the biblical prescription for peace. It is an ideal that |
| hesitate to say that the war we have just been | | | | recognizes the realist's fears and puts them to rest. |
| through, though it was shot through with terror of | | | | TRANSFORM OR CONFORM The only way through |
| every kind, is not to be compared with the war we | | | | the impasse created by human nature is by means |
| would have to face the next time." Wilson's words | | | | of a change of heart. The change of heart religion |
| were eerily prescient. The succeeding 1939-45 world | | | | and the Bible specifies is a fundamental |
| conflict and its atomic conclusion massively eclipsed | | | | transformation of mind and attitude set in motion by |
| the First World War, unfathomable as it was in its | | | | an outside source. Previous to his change of heart, |
| carnage. The international wars that followed only | | | | the apostle Paul was by his own admission "a |
| served to demonstrate the apparently uncontrollable | | | | blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man" (1 |
| human capacity for technological development in | | | | Timothy 1:13, New International Version). He came to |
| delivering death. The threat of nuclear holocaust | | | | see that even with religious zeal as his motivation, he |
| looms large in McNamara's 21st-century scenario. | | | | was of the wrong spirit. It is with the deepest |
| Accordingly he believes that two imperatives, moral | | | | conviction that he writes, "To be carnally minded is |
| and multilateral, must guide U.S. foreign and defense | | | | death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" |
| policy in this century. The moral imperative requires | | | | (Romans 8:6). That spiritual mind, he says, comes |
| that the U.S. government establish as a major goal of | | | | only from the influence of God at work in humans |
| foreign policy "the avoidance in this century of the | | | | through His Holy Spirit. It is made available in part for |
| carnage--160 million dead--caused by conflict in the | | | | the conquering of human nature's downward pull. He |
| 20th century." The corresponding multilateral | | | | encourages us: "Be transformed by the renewing of |
| imperative requires that the United States recognize | | | | your mind, that you may prove what is that good |
| that it "must provide leadership to achieve the | | | | and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans |
| objective of reduced carnage but, in doing so, it will | | | | 12:2). That renewal comes only from the Spirit of |
| not apply its economic, political, or military power | | | | God. Are these philosophy and ideas of idealism and |
| unilaterally, other than in the unlikely circumstances of | | | | realism the pathway to peace? In fact, neither is. |
| a defense of the continental United States, Hawaii, | | | | Peace will become the way of the nations only when |
| and Alaska." Further, he believes that foreign policies | | | | Isaiah's prophecy of the cessation of weapons |
| across the globe should adopt the same moral | | | | manufacture and of war itself comes to pass. In the |
| imperative, as is currently the case in the aftermath | | | | meantime, lasting peace can come individually from |
| of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World | | | | within when the Spirit of God is active within. |