He believed individuals could be moral, but groups—especially nations—are almost always selfish. He called this "Moral Man and Immoral Society".
He had a famous public debate with his brother, , who argued for "The Grace of Doing Nothing" in the face of Japanese aggression. Reinhold countered with "Must We Do Nothing?", arguing that in a fallen world, justice often requires resisting power with power. He realized that absolute love is a divine standard, but on earth, the highest goal we can often achieve is a "precarious justice" . The Core of the Theory Reinhold Niebuhr and International Relations Th...
By the Cold War, Niebuhr had become a "prophet" for the American establishment. Political giants like (the architect of containment) and Hans Morgenthau (the father of modern Realism) cited him as their primary inspiration. Kennan famously called him "the father of all of us". Go to product viewer dialog for this item. Reinhold countered with "Must We Do Nothing
Borrowing from St. Augustine, he argued that nations are driven by a libido dominandi (desire to dominate) that hides behind high-sounding ideals. Political giants like (the architect of containment) and
Niebuhr began his career as a pacifist, horrified by the carnage of World War I. But as he watched the rise of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in the 1930s, he realized that "doing nothing" was its own kind of moral failure.