Politics and International Relations

Abstract

I feel KWT is least known as a theorist. In the minds of many, even some of his former students, he simply echoed Morgenthau’s or Niebuhr’s realism and in the end remains simply one of the voices of traditional political realism, albeit a powerful one. For many, he was a major transmitter of the main ideas of political realism. Part of this perception can be explained in terms of KWT’s humility and modesty. He was not explicit or aggressive about his own views. In the words of his son, “my father had caution about keeping what he thought back” (author’s interview, Ken C. Thompson, April 6, 2012, Washington, DC). A former student, David Clinton—who worked with him for a long time—expressed a similar view. During our interview, he kept repeating that KWT “always seemed to me a private man and this is an aspect of his mid-Western and Lutheran upbringing that stayed with him” (author’s interview, March 26, 2012, Waco, Texas).

Politics is the arena where power and conscience meet—and will meet until the end of time.

—KWT (B1987: 51)