Response Paper 1

Alexia Deleers

Mark Shirk

International Political Relations

23 September 2013

A Critique of Morgenthau’s Principles of Political Realism

Women all around the world have always been considered as inferior beings when it comes to important political positions. It has been common knowledge for centuries that the heavy duty work of running a country, and the jobs alike, were meant for men and men only. However, as women have started to gain more respect and consequently, more power, in Ann Tickner’s words: they have started to question the reason why women are so underrepresented in the higher echelons of the foreign policy establishments.

In the first part of her argument, Thickner uses feminist theories to show masculine dominance within Morgenthau’s principles of political realism. I agree completely with Thickner’s argument that foreign politics are dominated by masculinity. It is a known fact that women do not receive as much power over important decisions. Power should not be defined by gender, gender is simply a set of socially constructed categories. I believe power is a very abstract concept. Morgenthau states that power is: “the control of man over man” (Thickner 20). International Relations involve many aspects in which women are known to be able to bring different views on how to take on different conflicts, views which men are not capable of seeing considering they are known to have different trains of thoughts.

There are many ways in which women would be able to contribute to International Relations in order to make it more successful. Women have a different way of thinking as well as a different way of approaching important issues. It is imperative that the world around us stop believing that men are the only ones with the power of running foreign affairs. Thickner states” Most feminist share the belief that knowledge is constructed” (Thickner 18). I strongly agree with this statement in the sense that humans learn what they know from experience and from the world around them. This is why i believe women would bring an interesting new point of view to the world of International Relations.

Thickner believes feminist theory will be able to help the reconceptualizing of important elements of International Relations. I agree with Thickner when she states: “girls are socialized to use different modes of problem solving when dealing with conflicts” (Thickner 22). I believe this characteristic of women would be very useful concerning international conflict resolution. This is another way in which women are different thinkers than men. I believe it is time to start thinking differently about the running of foreign affairs and that it is important to start building a theory of International Relations which contains elements of both masculinity and femininity as both have extremely different and equally as worthy thoughts.