Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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In The Atlantic Realists, intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a new interpretation of "realism," the dominant theory in the post-1945 discipline of international relations and a prominent orientation in US foreign policy debates today. Challenging the view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, Specter argues that its major features were the product of a century-long transatlantic dialogue and exchange between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers how an "Atlantic realist" tradition of reflection was profoundly conditioned by the specificities of the US-German relationship, their fin de siecle imperial competition, and relationship in two world wars and the Cold War. By tracing the development of the realist worldview over a century, Specter dismantles popular myths about the ideas of the national interest, power politics, great power competition, Realpolitik, and the "art" of statesmanship.