John H. Herz: Balancing Utopia and Reality

Abstract

John H. Herz's model of the `security dilemma' is regularly cited in textbooks and has become common usage among students of international relations. In contrast, the full range of his work on international politics has received little attention. Nevertheless, his work deserves substantial reassessment, for three main reasons: first, Herz contributed significantly to the emergence and development of realism in the 1950s, most notably through his concept of `Realist Liberalism'. Second, the development of Herz's ideas paradigmatically reflects the `pilgrimage' of a German-Jewish émigré to the US, who witnessed and analysed almost all of the twentieth century, and a little beyond. Third, Herz was a pioneer in understanding that the new global challenges could not be overcome with classic realist instruments and in accepting the centrality of `non-realist' insights.