![]() ![]() Neither of these meanings offer much beyond a rhetorical device. As “an unwelcome import from the dark heart of Mitteleuropa,” in John Bew’s telling phrase, realpolitik marks a disturbing counterpoint to Anglo-Saxon conceptions of fair play and liberty under law. More often, however, it conjures a very different image of cynically pursuing advantage by deploying power without moral restraint. Sometimes it signals a practical approach focused on the concrete particulars that shape international relations or an effort to cut through naivety and utopianism. The word provides a condensed symbol that expresses different meanings depending upon who employs it. Realpolitik is a term more often invoked within the English-speaking world than explained or understood. ![]()
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