In The Atlantic Realists intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a boldly revisionist
interpretation of realism a prevalent stance in post-WWII US foreign policy and public
discourse and the dominant international relations theory during the Cold War. Challenging the
common view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs
Specter argues that its major features emerged from a century-long dialogue between American
and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers an Atlantic
realist tradition of reflection on the prerogatives of empire and the nature of power politics
conditioned by fin de siècle imperial competition two world wars the Holocaust and the Cold
War. Focusing on key figures in the evolution of realist thought including Carl Schmitt Hans
Morgenthau and Wilhelm Grewe this book traces the development of the realist worldview over a
century dismantling myths about the national interest Realpolitik and the art of
statesmanship.
