Abstract

PEDRO, Guilherme Marques. The world state and international law in Morgenthau’s IR theory. Relações Internacionais [online]. 2018, n.58, pp.41-68. ISSN 1645-9199.  https://doi.org/10.23906/ri2018.58a04.

This article revisits one of the central topics of Hans Morgenthau’s realism – the world state – as a major gateway to one of the most neglected areas in the current historiography of the realist tradition: that of international law. The article thus argues that Morgenthau’s realism can be read in light of Locke’s metaphysical challenge to Hobbes’ view of the state of nature. National interest can in this light be seen as highly conditioned by the republican ideal of popular sovereignty – akin to that of limited government – where law is already operating socially, even before being posited by the state. By developing this parallel with Locke – shared in part by German legal philosophy that preceded Morgenthau – we are in a better position to understand how he accommodates the functional approach in his realist take on international law and on the social prerequisites of a world state.

Keywords : World state; realism; functionalism; international law.

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