Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T18:11:14.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the notion of “interest” in international relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Friedrich Kratochwil
Get access

Extract

Since the notion of the “national interest” plays a pivotal role in the discourse of state action, its clarification as a normative term is historically as well as systematically important. Differing from the conventional approach, which defines the national interest according to genus and taxa, I shall argue that due to its function as a normative term the national interest cannot be understood in taxonomic categories; it necessitates an investigation of the logic of its use according to specified criteria. In this context the notion of the “public interest” is, for historical as well as systematic reasons, illuminating. As historical investigation shows, the term national interest is neither self-justificatory nor arbitrary within the conventions of the European state system until the late nineteenth century. Important changes in the international system can be traced by following the fundamentally changed usage of the term after 1870. A short comparison with and critique of Waltz's “systemic theory” of international relations concludes the article.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , Winter 1982 , pp. 1 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For a stocktaking of American interests in the post-Vietnam era see Hoffmann, Stanley, Primacy or World Order (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977)Google Scholar; see also the special issue, “America and the World 1978,” Foreign Affairs 57, 3 (1979).Google Scholar

2 Morgenthau, Hans, In Defense of the National Interest (New York: Knopf, 1951)Google Scholar; Morgenthau, , “Another Great Debate: The National Interest and the United States,” American Political Science Review 46, 4 (1952): 961–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Niebuhr, Reinhold, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (New York: Scribner, 1950)Google Scholar; Kennan, George F., American Diplomacy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951)Google Scholar; Wolfers, Arnold, “The Goals of Foreign Policy,” in Wolfers, , ed., Discord and Collaboration (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962), pp. 67–80Google Scholar; Marshall, C. B., “National Interest and National Responsibility,” Annals of the American Society of Political and Social Science 282 (07 1952): 1–8.Google Scholar

3 Morgenthau, Hans, Politics among Nations, 5th ed. (New York: Knopf, 1978), p. 5.Google Scholar

4 See, for example, the somewhat confused attempt of Frankel, Joseph in National Interest (London: Pall Mall, 1970), which fails to tell us why a given classification is sensible or fitting.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 See, for example, Furniss, Edgar and Snyder, Richard, An Introduction to American Foreign Policy (New York: Rinehart, 1955), on p. 5Google Scholar: “The national interest is what the nation, i.e., the decision-maker decides it is.”

6 This seems to be James Rosenau's position in his article, “National Interest,” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York: Free Press, 1968), 11: 35–40.Google Scholar

7 Perhaps most clearly stated in the context of the public interest debate: see Truman, David, The Governmental Process (New York: Knopf, 1951)Google Scholar and Schubert, Glendon, The Public Interest (New York: Free Press, 1960).Google Scholar

8 Differing from this traditional Marxist point of view, Isaak Balbus tried to utilize the Marxian distinction of class an sich and für sich to render objective the notion of interest. Balbus, , “The Concept of Interest in Pluralist and Marxian Analysis,” Politics and Society 1, 2 (1978): 151–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Sondermann, Fred, “The Concept of the National Interest,” Orbis 21, 1 (1977), p. 132.Google Scholar

10 Beard, Charles A., The Idea of the National Interest (New York: Macmillan, 1934).Google Scholar

11 Osgood, Robert E., Ideals and Self-interest in America's Foreign Relations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953).Google Scholar

12 Quoted in Beard, Idea of the National Interest, p. 339.

13 Morgenthau, , Politics among Nations, p. 5.Google Scholar

14 Osgood, Ideals and Self-interest, pp. 5–6.Google Scholar

15 This distinction between commendatory and descriptive meaning is crucial to Hare's language analysis. See Hare, R. M., The Language of Morals (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952).Google Scholar

16 This is the Platonic fallacy of “essences” embodied in varying degrees in actual objects or actions.

17 See, for example, Waltz, Kenneth, Theory of International Relations (Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1979).Google Scholar

18 Kaplan, Morton, System and Process in International Relations (New York: Wiley, 1964)Google Scholar. The most recent work on this subject debating Waltz's points is Kaplan, , Towards Professionalism in International Theory (New York: Free Press, 1979).Google Scholar

19 See, for example, Keohane, Robert and Nye, Joseph, Power and Interdependence (Boston: Little, Brown, 1977).Google Scholar

20 Flathman, Richard, The Public Interest (New York: Wiley, 1966).Google Scholar

21 Held, Virginia, The Public Interest and Individual Interests (New York: Basic Books, 1970).Google Scholar

22 Barry, Brian, Political Argument (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965).Google Scholar

23 Hare, , The Language of Morals.Google Scholar

24 Meinecke, Friedrich, Die Idee der Staatsräson (Munich and Berlin: R. Oldenburg, 1929).Google Scholar

25 Flathman, , The Public Interest, p. 43.Google Scholar

26 For a clear statement of the participation theory underlying the classical tradition, see Voegelin, Eric, Anamnesis (Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre Dame University Press, 1978).Google Scholar

27 Hare, , The Language of Morals, especially pp. 119ff.Google Scholar

28 Flathman, , The Public Interest, p. 10.Google Scholar

29 Barry, , Political Argument, chap. 13.Google Scholar

30 Held, , The Public Interest, p. 123.Google Scholar

31 Singer, Marcus G., Generalization in Ethics (New York: Knopf, 1960), p. 5.Google Scholar

32 Flathman, , The Public Interest, p. 42.Google Scholar

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid., p. 70.

35 Ibid., p. 82.

36 Plato concluded that public interest and common good are conceptions appropriately employed only by philosopher kings in discussions with other philosopher kings. If it is true that public interest functions to commend and justify public policy, and if only philosopher kings are capable of fully understanding the justifications and commendations, it follows that there would be no occasion to use the concept outside the circle of philosopher kings. Whatever one might think about the philosophical position that underlies this conclusion, the result is at variance with public interest as employed in our discourse. Flathman, , The Public Interest, pp. 56ff.Google Scholar

37 Flathman, , The Public Interest, p. 74.Google Scholar

38 Thucydides, , History of the Peloponnesian War 2. 10. 82–84.Google Scholar

39 On this point, see Jouvenel, Bernard de, The Pure Theory of Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963), particularly chap. 2.Google Scholar

40 Rohan, Henri Duc de, A Treatise of the Interest of the Princes and States of Christendome, trans, into English by , H. H. (Paris, 1640).Google Scholar

41 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Du Contrat Social.Google Scholar

42 See, for example, his preface to the Discourses.Google Scholar

43 See, for example, the works of Trajano Boccalini, Raguaggli di Parnaso (1612–1613), and Pietra del Paragone Politico (1615); both works are reprinted in Scrittori d'Italia, 2 vols. (Bari: G. Laterza e figli, 1910 and 1912).Google Scholar

44 See Meinecke, Staatsräson, chap. 6.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., p. 233.

46 See Laugel, Auguste, Henry de Rohan (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1889).Google Scholar

47 On this point, see Meinecke, , Staatsräson, chap. 6.Google Scholar

48 In this context, it is interesting that de Rohan dedicates his De L'Interest des Princes et Éstats de la Chrestienté to Richelieu.

49 See Rohan, , A Treatise, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

50 Ibid., pp. 14–15.

51 See, for example, Frankena, W.'s position: “Prudentialism, of living wholly by the principle of self-love is just not a kind of morality.” Ethics, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1973), p. 19.Google Scholar

52 In this context the elimination of sectarian goals is particularly important. See, for example, Frederick the Great's telling and relevant indictment of religious fervor, in “On Diplomatic Negotiations and on Just Causes for War”: “Concerning wars of religion I want to say here only that much, i.e. that a ruler should try his utmost to avoid them. Otherwise there is no word hard enough for the criminal misuse which claims for any act the word of justice and equity, which does not feel ashamed of the blasphemy and which tries to hide its striving after power behind the name of the Almighty. It is a sign of the highest order of rascality to intend to deceive the world with such unabashed pretenses….” Voltz, Gustav B., ed., Ausgewählte Werke Friedrichs des Grossen (Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1917), 2–23Google Scholar see also Frederick's sarcastic remarks in History of My Time concerning the Lutheran zealot, Christian VI of Denmark; Werke 1:56.

53 Rousset, Jean, Les Intérêts Présents et les Prétensions des Puissances de l'Europe, 2d ed. (The Hague: Adrien Moetjens, 1736), 1:533.Google Scholar

54 Flathman, , The Public Interest, p. 41.Google Scholar

55 As quoted in Gulick, Edward V., Europe's Classical Balance of Power (New York: Norton, 1967), p. 32.Google Scholar

56 For a record of the practical implications of such theories, see study, Gulick's and Kissinger, Henry, A World Restored (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1964).Google Scholar

57 For a good account of the minimum conditions of order in international politics, see Bull, Hedley, The Anarchical Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the particular conventions in the European “society of nations,” see Kenns-Soper, Maurice, “The Practice of a States-system,” in Donelan, Michael, ed., The Reason of States (London: Allen & Unwin, 1978), pp. 25–45.Google Scholar

58 How much for granted we take the usefulness of conventions was painfully demonstrated by the Iranian crisis, when diplomatic immunity was deliberately violated for the first time since the Boxer rebellion.

59 For a justification on these grounds, see Gulick, , Europe's Classical Balance, especially chap. 11.Google Scholar

60 See my International Order and Foreign Policy (Boulder, Col.: Westview Press, 1978), especially pp. 74–77.Google Scholar

61 Riker's theory of coalitions, sometimes quoted as a possible solution, fails, as its applicability is restricted to n-person, zero-sum games with perfect information. These conditions are hardly isomorphic with international reality. But there is an even more principled reason why Riker's “size principle” leading to “minimum winning coalitions” as developed in Riker, The Theory of Political Coalitions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962)Google Scholar, will generally fail even if the ideal conditions are present. See, on that point, Hardin, Russel, “Hollow Victory: The Minimum Winning Coalition,” American Political Science Review 70 (12 1976): 1202–1214CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for the case of legislative coalition formation.

62 This is naturally the reason behind the “focal point solution” by which Thomas Schelling expanded classical game theory. For further treatment, see Schelling, , The Strategy of Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 1963)Google Scholar and Arms and Influence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)Google Scholar. For an imaginative treatment of “symbolic signposts” and their role in conflict resolution, see Barkun, Michael, Law without Sanctions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968).Google Scholar

63 See, for example, his thoughts on reputation as the first ingredient of a prince's power and the equation of a loss of reputation as a step to “ruin.” Armand du Plessis, Richelieu, Cardinal de, Testament Politique, 8th ed. (Amsterdam: Jansons a Waesberge, 1738), part 2, chap. 9, sections 1 and 2, pp. 64–68.Google Scholar

64 Jervis, Robert, The Logic of Images in International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970).Google Scholar

65 Indeed, the more conventions attain the status of social facts and inform choices, the greater the incentive to subvert them, as the presumption of all other actors will be that the defecting actor just “made an error.”

66 Voltz, , Ausgewählte Werke Friedrichs des Grossen, 2:66ff.Google Scholar

67 For a classical treatment of this problem, see Brierley, J. J., The Basis of Obligation in International Law, ed. by SirHersh, Lauterpacht (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958).Google Scholar

68 Pufendorf, Samuel, An Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe (London, 1711), preface.Google Scholar

69 Frederick, the Great, Antimachiavell, in Werke 2:21.Google Scholar

70 Hume, David, “Of the Balance of Power,” in Hume's Theory of Politics, ed. by Watkins, Frederick (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1951), pp. 187–88.Google Scholar

71 Ibid., p. 186.

72 This has implications for the explanation of social and political action. As the example shows, it is insufficient to describe behavior in purely observable empirical terms when we assume that action is rule-governed. On this point, see Schutz, Alfred, “The Social World and the Theory of Political Action,” Social Research 27 (Summer 1960): 203–223Google Scholar; Benn, S. I. and Peters, R. S., The Principles of Political Thought (New York: Free Press, 1965)Google Scholar, chap. 9.

73 For this analogy, see Morgenthau, , Politics among Nations, p. 5.Google Scholar

74 For a classical treatment of the money-power analogy and its pitfalls, see Baldwin, David, “Money and Power,” Journal of Politics 33 (1971): 578–614CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also Coleman, James, “Political Money,” American Political Science Review 64 (1970): 1074–1087.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

75 Knorr, Klaus, The War Potential of Nations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956).Google Scholar

76 Baldwin, David, “Power Analysis and World Politics,” World Politics 31 (01 1979): 161–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

77 Ibid., p. 166.

78 Gulick, , Europe's Classical Balance, pp. 25–26.Google Scholar

79 Ibid., chap. 9.

80 As quoted in Gulick, Europe's Classical Balance, p. 50.

81 Kissinger, Henry, “The White Revolutionary, Reflections on Bismarck,” Daedalus, Summer 1968, pp. 888–924.Google Scholar

82 Ibid., pp. 919 and 920.

83 As quoted in Mowat, R. B., The Concert of Europe (London: Macmillan, 1930), p. 44.Google Scholar

84 Ibid., p. 45.

85 Pflanze, Otto, Bismarck and the Development of Germany (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 98.Google Scholar

86 Ibid.

87 Ibid., p. 90.

88 Ibid., p. 89.

89 Cf. Bismarck, Otto von, Erinnerung and Gedanke, chap. 22Google Scholar, in Bismarck, , Werke in Auswahl, ed. by Buchner, Rudolf (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1975), 2:360–61.Google Scholar

90 Riezler, Kurt, Tagebücher, ed. by Erdmann, Karl (Göttingen: Vanderhoek und Rupprecht, 1972).Google Scholar

91 Ratzenhofer, Gustav, Wesen und Zweck der Politik (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1893).Google Scholar

92 Riezler, Kurt, Die Erforderlichkeit des Unmöglichen, Prolegonoma zu einer Theorie der Politik und zu anderen Theorien (Munich, 1912)Google Scholar. In this context it is significant to notice the change in the conception of politics even when compared to the Bismarck era, as Bismarck's famous dictum was that “politics is the art of the possible.” Riezler's influence on German foreign policy stems from his position as a close adviser to the Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg. Sir Eyre Crowe's memorandum can be found in Good, G. P. and Temperly, Harold, eds., British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914, 11 vols. (London, 1926–1938), 3:397–420.Google Scholar

93 Good and Temperly, British Documents 3:406.

94 ibid., p. 417.

95 Riezler, , Die ErfordlichkeitGoogle Scholar, as quoted in Geis, Immanuel, July 1914 (London: B. T. Batsford, 1967), p. 34.Google Scholar

96 Ibid., p. 35.

97 For a good short collection of essays outlining the various positions on the war-guilt question, see Lee, Dwight, ed., The Outbreak of the First World War (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1975).Google Scholar

98 Calleo, David, The German Problem Reconsidered (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 48–49.Google Scholar

99 On this point, see Coplin, William, “International Law and Assumptions about the State System,” World Politics 17 (10 1964): 615–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

100 On the importance of standards for the functioning of the legal system, see Dworkin, Ronald, “Is Law a System of Rules?” in Dworkin, , ed., The Philosophy of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977)Google Scholar. The importance of standards versus rules for private law adjudication is spelled out in Kennedy, Duncan, “Form and Substance in Private Law Adjudication,” Harvard Law Review 81, 8 (06 1976): 1685–1778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

101 On the contest between practical reasoning, rhetoric, and judicial decision making, see Perelman, C., Logique juridique (Paris: Dutton, 1976)Google Scholar. Also Perelman, Chaim and Tyteca, L. Olbrechts, La nouvelle rhetorique, Traité de l'argumentation (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1958).Google Scholar

102 On the problem of “balancing” in judicial reasoning, see Twining, Wm. and Miers, David, How To Do Things with Rules (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976), especially chaps. 7 and 8.Google Scholar

103 See the Gortschakoff remark above, fn. 84.

104 On the notion of a great power, see Wight, Martin, Power Politics (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1978), chaps. 1–3Google Scholar. Also Bull, The Anarchical Society, chap. 9.

105 See fn. 17–18 above.

106 See, for example, Waltz, Kenneth, “The Stability of a Bipolar World,” Daedalus 93 (Summer 1964): 299–308.Google Scholar

107 For this point, see Nogee, Joseph, “Polarity: An Ambiguous Concept,” Orbis 18 (Winter 1978): 1193–1224.Google Scholar

108 Waltz, , Theory of International Relations, chap. 5.Google Scholar

109 See, for example, Knorr, , The War Potential of NationsGoogle Scholar. Naturally, this objection does not seem to hold for Waltz's argument about the stability of the bipolar world as in this case “poles” and “polarities” coincide. Nevertheless, for Waltz's argument to hold, a stable deterrence must be in operation. Since deterrence is a psychological and not a systemic relationship, a purely systemic explanation without recourse to reductionist explanations, including motives, purposes, and decision making characteristics of the antagonists, seems impossible. For a critique of deterrence theories along these lines see George, Alexander and Smoke, Richard, Deterrence in American Foreign Policy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

110 See Middleton, John and Tait, David, eds., Tribes without Rulers: Studies in African Segmentary Systems (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958)Google Scholar; Masters, Roger D., “World Politics as a Primitive Political System,” World Politics 16 (07 1964): 595–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

111 Poggi, Gianfranco, The Development of the Modern State (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1978).Google Scholar

112 On the historical evolution and the political embeddedness of the market, see Polanyi, Karl, The Great Transformation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957).Google Scholar

113 “Normative” theory in this context means a theory of advice rather than description, and is therefore not explicitly tied to any particular value.

114 Waltz, , Theory of International Relations, p. 74 on socializationGoogle Scholar. Contrast this with the assertion on p. 57 that the “balance of power is simply a theory about the outcome of unit's behavior under conditions of anarchy.”

115 See Lakatos, Imre, “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes,” in Lakatos, and Musgrave, Alan, eds., Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 91–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

116 For an elaboration of this approach to international relations, see my forthcoming paper “The Humean Perspective on International Relations,” Princeton University Center of International Studies Occasional Paper no. 9 (Princeton, N.J., 1981).Google Scholar

117 On this point, especially in regards to problems of distributive justice, see Beitz, Charles, Political Theory and International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979).Google Scholar

118 For the context of political theory and a particular “vision” embodied in it, see Wolin, Sheldon, Politics and Vision (Boston: Little, Brown, 1960).Google Scholar