Revisiting the ‘darker side’ of democratic peace: Morgenthau, reflexivity, and the role of scholars in times of deception
In this short video extract, Haro L Karkour discusses his key arguments from his new Review of International Studies article - Revisiting the ‘darker side’ of democratic peace: Morgenthau, reflexivity, and the role of scholars in times of deception.
Want to know more? You can read the full article at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210525101198
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Abstract
While critical literature sought to expand the agenda of a reflexive approach to democratic peace, it does not explain how reflexivity can be carried to the public, particularly in times of public deception, and what practical tools theorists hold, qua public intellectuals, to advance this objective. This article argues that classical realism, Hans Morgenthau’s work in particular, can amend this lacuna. Morgenthau’s signpost of ‘interest defined in terms of power’ arms critical scholars with an important tool to retain the premises of Kantian democratic peace; that is, it helps preserve an open public sphere where the public can deliberate the nation’s fundamental interests and values spatio-temporally, and offer democratic control. The significance of this contribution is twofold: first, public reflexivity is key in times of deception because in these times scholars who seek to influence elites find themselves in the paradoxical position of renouncing reflexivity or risking irrelevance. Second, in the absence of an open public sphere where social solidarity and meaning can be formed spatio-temporally, deception feeds into an environment of mistrust and alienation that renders democracy ripe for demagogues.
Photo by Arpit Rastogi on Unsplash
