ABSTRACT
Realpolitik—the cynical disregard of moral considerations in political behaviour—has a long pedigree. But much unprincipled political behaviour sanctioned by treating short-term self-interest as an end in itself is not correctly so described. Rather it is a politics of ‘realism’, based upon the presumption that it is not necessary to take account of the effects of one’s actions on other actors beyond certain rather narrow limits.
