ABSTRACT
International relations (IR) theory is plagued by paradigmatism, the view that considers the various theories as mutually exclusive paradigms. This chapter examines the implications to reveal Raymond Aron's international ethics in three oxymorons, that is, appearances of contradiction: a liberal realism, an inspired ethic of responsibility and a post-Kantian Machiavellianism. Aron believes there are signs that humanity is heading in a cosmopolitan direction: compared to the Age of Metternich, the interstate system is now spread over five continents and allows the exchange of everything. Aron's ethics, mostly consequentialist with may be some virtue ethics aspects, is definitely not Kantian: his morality of wisdom is not a principled or rule-based reasoning. Understanding the compatibility of realism and idealism, in the literal sense of having ideals rather than the vulgar one of being naive, depends on the Kantian notion of "idea of reason", "an idea that can never be entirely realized, but which animates action and indicates a goal".
