John McCain – The Realistic Idealist

In March Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain delivered a speech at the World Affairs Council, Los Angeles, highlighting the basic tenets of his foreign policy. McCain claims to be a realistic idealist, one who recognizes the challenges in the contemporary world while aspiring for the higher ideals of peaceful co-existence among nations. His speech is a classic example of coding realist goals in idealist language.

In his own words, McCain’s idealism is to make the world a more better and peaceful place, where “our interests and those of our allies are more secure” and American ideals advance even further than they have. According to Morgenthau protecting and securing one’s interests is the basis of the Realist Theory.

McCain seeks to expand the reach of American ideals; this conforms with Morgenthau’s advise that national interest is dynamic and strategies to achieve these interests should evolve in response to emerging demands.

According to McCain the developments of science and technology have brought untold prosperity, eradicated disease, and reduced the suffering of millions in the US. Thus the US has “a chance in our lifetime to raise the world to a new standard of human existence.” Morgenthau’s principle of ‘national interest defined as power’ is clearly evident in this statement of McCain.

The US, according to McCain must lead by attracting others to its cause, by demonstrating the virtues of freedom and democracy, by defending the rules of international civilized society and by creating the new international institutions necessary to advance the peace and freedoms. The universal moral principles of realism referred to in McCain’s speech, are filtered through the prism of America’s national interest. This confirms with the realist principle that universal moral principles are not applied to the actions of states in their abstract universal formulation, but are filtered through the concrete circumstances of time and place.

To err is human. According to the Realist Theory, laws of politics are rooted in human nature. No wonder, McCain has erred in branding his realism as idealism. It is simply an idealist statement of the realist principles in his foreign policy.