Rousseau,Realism and Realpolitik

I. The most well-known expression of this widely held view probably remains that of Martin Wight, 'Why Is There No International Theory?', in Herbert Butterfield and Martin Wight (eds.), Diplomatic Investigations: Essays in the Theory and Practice of International Politics (London : George Allen & Unwin, 1966 ), pp. 17-34.

The juxtaposition which portrays Kant and Rousseau as representing the dualistically opposed categories of 'idealism' and 'realism' in international relations theory has become almost gospel, and is reflected most clearly in Stanley Hoffmann's well-known statement that: 'Whoever studies international relations cannot but hear, behind the clash of interests and ideologies, a kind of permanent dialogue between Rousseau and Kant.' The State of War (New York: Praeger, 1965 ), p. 86. This classification is echoed in virtually every major analysis; see, for example, F.H. Hinsley , Power and the Pursuit of Peace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963); W.B. Gallie , Philosophers of Peace and War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 18-19; and especially Ian Clark. Reform and Resistance in the International Order (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1981 ), whose identification of Rousseau with the 'tradition of despair' in opposition to Kantian 'tradition of optimism' will form a major focus of this paper. It is particularly interesting to note the chronological reversal of these two supposedly opposing views in Clark's treatment. This, it seems to me, is more than a mere methodological quibble. In presenting Rousseau as following Kant the impression is created that Rousseau provides a serious 'hardheaded' and 'realistic' critique of Kant's formulation, exposing its weaknesses and fallacies. The relationship between the two is thus rendered analogous to the self-image of these commentators themselves, in which realism provides the corrective critique of utopianism. This seemingly simple issue thus reflects a deeper theoretical (ideological?) position or tactic which goes beyond mere inadequacy in intellectual history.

Hoffmann , op. cit, p. 56.

Ibid., p. 57.

Ibid., p. 55.

Ibid., p. 72.

Ibid., p. 73.

Clark , op. cit, p. 62.

Hoffmann , op. cit, p. 70.

Clark , op. cit, pp. 66-75.

All references to Rousseau's 'Abstract' and 'Judgement' on St. Pierre's Project for Perpetual Peace, unless otherwise noted, are taken from M.G. Forsyth , H.M.A. Keans-Soper and P. Savigear (eds.), The Theory of International Relations ( London: Allen and Unwin, 1970).

Hinsley , op. cit, p. 47.

Rousseau , ' Abstract', p. 132. Emphasis added. Cf.. also Clark , op. cit, p. 62.

Rousseau , 'Abstract', pp. 132-5.

Ibid., p, 147.

Ibid., pp. 154-6.

Ibid., p. 156. Cf., Clark, op. cit, pp. 63-4.

Hinsley , op. cit, p. 48.

Clark , op. cit, p. 63. For a fuller account see Chapter 3 of Hinsley, whose entire analysis stresses this interpretation. Hoffmann's position on this issue is more ambiguous and correspondingly more insightful. Rather than seeing Rousseau's analysis as outlining the eternal structure of international politics he seems to regard it as exemplifying the problematic within which international relations take place. This is most clearly evident in his later work, Duties Beyond Borders (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1981). The difficulty with Hoffmann's interpretation is not so much his portrayal of this problematic, but rather the dualistic philosophical foundation upon which it is built. His vision of Rousseau as exemplifying the politics of fallen man leaves no plausible escape from the terror of the present, except an impossible return to the state of nature. Despite his sophistication and obvious discomfort with many of its implications, this ultimately leaves Hoffmann trapped within the realist tradition.

Kenneth Waltz , Theory of International Politics ( Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1979 ), p. 47. Waltz indeed accuses Hoffmann of adopting the former of these two positions, and thereby misreading Rousseau's analysis: 'So profound is Hoffmann's commitment to inside-out explanations that he even recasts Rousseau in his own image.'

Kenneth Waltz , Man. the State and War ( New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), p. 160. Cf., also Theory of International Politics, ch. 5 and 6. While Waltz provides the most explicit formulation of this argument, it also underlies much of the positions held by both Hinsley and Clark.

'Discourse on the Origin of Inequality' in J.J. Rousseau , The Social Contract and Discourses , trans. and intro. G.D.H. Cole, revised J.M. Brumfitt and John C. Hall (London: Dent, 1983 ), p. 39.

Rousseau , in The Indispensable Rousseau, compiled by John Hope Mason (London: Quartet Books, 1979), p. 233.

Rousseau , 'The General Society of the Human Race' in The Social Contract and Discourses , p. 156.

Rousseau , 'Discourse', p. 54. A useful and more sustained criticism of the conception of the state of nature as Rousseau's ideal condition - although one with which I am not in complete agreement - is A.O. Lovejoy's 'The Supposed Primitivism of Rousseau's Discourse on the Origins of Inequatity' in his Essays on the History of Ideas (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1952).

Rousseau , 'General Society', op. cit, p. 157.

The sense in which I use realism here is greatly indebted to R.N. Berki's On Political Realism (London: Dent, 1981).

Rousseau , 'Discourse', pp. 86-7

'The state is supposedly the restoration of the equality of nature and the termination of the state of war; but in reality it guarantees the perpetuation of inequality in civil society at the same time that it introduces a new form of inequality, political inequality ...' Ascher Horowitz , Rousseau, Nature and History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987) p.118. This theme will later be discussed in greater detail. For an interesting discussion of Rousseau's critique of'civil society', see Part 3 of Lucio Colletti's From Rousseau to Lenin, trans. J. Merrington and J. White (New York: Monthly Review Press , 1972).

Rousseau , 'Discourse', op. cit, p. 89.

Hinsley , op. cit., pp. 55-61.

For a summary of this debate see Ernst Cassirer , The Philosophy of the Enlightenment (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968), p. 270.

Rousseau , 'Judgement', p. ) 158.

Rousseau , The Social Contract, in The Social Contract and Discourses , p. 22 This theme is repeated, in almost identical form, in The Governement of Poland, trans. by W. Kendall (New York: Bobbs Merrill. 1972), pp. 48 and 52.

Ibid., p. 225.

Ibid., p. 221.

Rousseau , 'Judgement', p. 160.

Rousseau , ' Judgement' p. 161. Both Waltz (Man, the State and War, p. 181), and especially Hinsley, miss the essential thrust of these arguments and thus, as we shall see, transform Rousseau into a type of structuralist in their own image.

Ibid., p. 159.

Hinsley , Ibid., pp. 49-52.

Rousseau , ' Discourse'. pp. 89-90 and 158-9, for example.

Ibid., p. 78,

Rousseau , Social Contract, p. 274; cf., Waltz , Man, the State and War, p. 169.

Rousseau , ' Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Priest', The Indispensible Rousseau. p. 228.

Rousseau , Social Contract , p. 275.

Rousseau , 'Profession', p. 229.

Rousseau , Social Contract, p. 273. Rousseau's relationship to religion in general, and to Christianity in particular, is far too complex to be entered into here. What is clear is that Rousseau's attack on the conventional Christianity of his time is grounded in arguments far more complex, and quite different, than those of realpolitik. For a fuller discussion see Colletti , op. cit, pp. 175-80; and, for Cassirer's attitude toward this difficult issue, see his The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ed. and trans. Peter Gay (Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 1975), pp. 109-19.

Quoted in Cassirer, Rousseau, Kant, Goethe, p. 37.

Hinsley , op. cit, p. 53.

Rousseau , ' Discourse', p. 112. Cf also the statement from Emile: 'When I want to train a natural man, I do not want to make him a savage and to send him back to the woods.' Quoted in Horowitz , op. cit, p. 217.

See Cassirer , Philosophy of the Enlightenment, p. 272, and The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, pp. 77-81.

Rousseau , Social Contract , p. 168.

Ibid., p. 174.

It is important to note that the manner in which Rousseau uses the concept of right or rights varies significantly from the liberal bourgeois version, i.e., property rights. However this is an issue which is beyond the scope of the present analysis. It should be obvious by now that the position put forward here explicitly rejects the realist opposition of Kant and Rousseau. But this too is another matter. For the most explicit linking of Rousseau's thought with that of Kant, see Cassirer , The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, pp. 63-6.

'The only legitimate basis of the modem state that Rousseau is discussing in The Social Contract is the will, the absolutely free will ... Society is therefore to be established by convention and does not issue any longer from nature.' Horowitz , op. cit, p. 170. See also the discussion in Cassirer , The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, pp. 63-6.

Hoffmann , The State of War, p. 73.

Waltz , Man, the State and War, pp. 180-2.

An excellent discussion of the importance of this idea, although with only passing reference to Rousseau, may be found in Andrew Linklater , Men and Citizens in the Theory of International Relations (London : Macmillan, 1982).

Rousseau , Social Contract , p. 245.

Ibid., p. 237. Emphasis added.

Rousseau , The Government of Poland, p. 80.

Ibid., pp. 67-8.

This theme is more fully discussed by Cassirer , The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, pp.103-6. For a sophisticated and incisive exploration of this conception of realism see R.N. Berki , On Political Realism.

Hoffmann , The State of War, p. 67.

A position which Kant also held, reflected in his wry remark about 'perpetual peace' being found only in the grave.

Read in this way, Rousseau's writings may be seen as bearing some relationship to a number of current attempts to construct a critical theory of international politics. On the theme of history, change and especially the need to refuse the 'inside/outside' dichotomy, see R.B.J. Walker , 'Realism, Change and International Political Theory', International Studies Quarterly (Vol. 31, No. 1, March 1987). On the need to reopen the often closed field of discourse surrounding international relations, see Richard Ashley , 'The Geopolitics of Geopolitical Space: Toward a Critical Social Theory of International Politics ', Alternatives (Vol. 12, No. 4, October 1987); and the subsequent discussion between Ashley, Walker and Ramashray Roy , 'Dialogue: Toward a Critical Social Theory of International Politics', Alternatives (Vol. 13, No. 1, January 1988).

Rousseau , Discourse, p. 106.