Uploaded March 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
IES Senior Fellow and Visiting Scholar in Political Science, Matthew Specter is an intellectual historian of modern Europe. In this talk, which draws on his current book project for Stanford University Press, Specter analyzes how and why American academics, public and policymakers embraced Hans Morgenthau’s plea for a “realist” turn away from liberalism and toward “power politics,” and the arguments for and against Morgenthau as a misunderstood figure of the realist canon.
IES Senior Fellow and Visiting Scholar in Political Science, Matthew Specter is an intellectual historian of modern Europe. In this talk, which draws on his current book project for Stanford University Press, Specter analyzes how and why American academics, public and policymakers embraced Hans Morgenthau’s plea for a “realist” turn away from liberalism and toward “power politics,” and the arguments for and against Morgenthau as a misunderstood figure of the realist canon.
