ABSTRACT
Consistent realism excludes four things which appear to be essential ingredients of all effective political thinking: a finite goal, an emotional appeal, a right of moral judgment and a ground for action. The human will continue to seek and escape from the logical consequences of realism in the vision of an international order which, it crystallizes itself into concrete political form, becomes tainted with self-interest and hypocrisy, and must once more be attacked with the instruments of realism. In international politics, there is no organized power charged with the task of creating harmony; and the temptation to assume a natural harmony is therefore particularly strong. The supreme importance of the military instrument lies in the fact that the ultima ratio of power in international relations is war. Economic strength has always been an instrument of political power, if only through its association with the military instrument.
