Power play
Notably, it seems Niebuhr’s writings on foreign relations influenced Henry Kissinger and his policy of “realpolitik”. How does this square with what could be thought of as Obama’s leaning towards “idealism”?
It may be the US president is equally familiar with a line of reasoning called “sophisticated realists”. Obviously, they embrace the importance of economic interests such as, for example, the primacy of oil supplies. Arguably, safeguarding resources needed for trade doesn’t preclude the use of techniques of “attraction and persuasion”.
To what extent is Obama now influenced by recent academic thinking, which replaces realism and idealism with “hard, soft and smart power”?
Ellis Thorpe
Old Chapel Walk
Inverurie, Aberdeenshire