Nuancing Hans J. Morgenthau

Anglo-Polish-German Relations in 1940-1942 as a Deviation of the Realist Theory

Abstract

Founded by Holocaust survivor Hans J. Morgenthau, the Realist school of international relations theory interprets the behaviour of European countries at the beginning of World War II as an endless tough struggle for each country’s physical survival and/or dominance on the continent through a mixture of diplomatic and military means. Some historians, using the analytical categories of the Idealist school opposed to realism, speak instead of an epic clash of supranational military-economic alliances built around conflicting political philosophies. This article, based on archival documents recently discovered by the author, provides a more nuanced picture of the European geopolitical scene from 1939 to 1942. Using the dynamics within the Anglo-Polish-German geopolitical triangle as its main reference point, it shows that, in the discussed context, individual international actors, among them democratic Great Britain and the ostensibly democratic Polish government-in-exile, as well as the entire continental system of international relations, behaved both as “selfish” realists and consensus-seeking idealists, depending on certain geopolitical and military circumstances.