Virtue Runs Amok

This chapter argues that a return to realism of a prudent and sceptical kind can help temper the pathologies that led to the Iraq War, on several fronts. It can counsel governments against excess certainty. In particular, it cautions against the ‘Gordian Knot’ temptation, the impatient urge to eliminate sources of insecurity and impose decisive solutions on problems, in particular the perennial demand for the downfall of adversary regimes. Realism can inform policymakers what war can affordably achieve. As well as placing princes on their guard against predation, iIt encourages prudent war avoidance. Mindful that states cannot avoid living with insecurity, uncertainty, and risk, we can draw upon realist insight to restore deterrence and consequential diplomacy as the central foundations of security. And with realism, we can guard against the temptation to view international life as a morality play requiring ideological crusades, recognizing it instead as a tragedy where good intentions can be deadly, as a conflicted world where not all good things go together, and where major powers can be their own worst enemies.