Masters of International Thought

The complexities of modern politics and international relationships sometimes overwhelm us. Kenneth W. Thompson here offers clarity to replace obscurity personal warmth and human values to replace abstractions. He states the aim of Masters of International Thought early: to introduce the ideas of eighteen men of large and capacious thought about twentieth-century international relations.. He presents thinkers who assimilate practical ethics and religion (Butterfield Niebuhr Murray Wight); who eschew utopia for the reality of power politics (Carr Morgenthau Spykman Wolfers Herz Deutsch); who regard the Cold War as a mirror of the human condition (Lippman Kennan Halle Aron); and who speculate about the possibilities of world order (Wright Mitrany de Visscher and Toynbee).. Thompson was guided in his selections by the enduring value of these men's thought. Even those works that are fifty years old are still read by policy makers and scholars Thompson points out. He also acknowledges his personal approach to these masters for not only has he known their works he has known many of the writers. He admits that they are intellectual giants but they are human beings not gods. In Masters of International Thought he clearly fulfills his aim to share the wisdom and knowledge of these twentieth-century thinkers.