3

BRINGING REALISM TO

AMERICAN LIBERALISM

Waltz and the process of a

Cold War adjustment

Michael Foley

Introduction

The reputation of Kenneth Waltz’s Man, the State, and War^1 is rightly attributed to
its achievement in locating international theory – and the behaviour on which it is
founded – within an explicit context of its own: namely the autonomy of ‘the
international’. Nevertheless, in seeking to demarcate the clear parameters of a
purportedly bounded realm of analytical, theoretical and organizational value, the
Waltzian conception of international politics can often preclude notable influences
not merely at different levels of analysis, but within different dimensions of Waltz’s
own personal and social context. The intention of this chapter is to examine the
latter categories and, in particular, the political and intellectual milieu of American
liberalism during the Cold War. It was during this period that liberalism in the
United States acquired a conspicuous identity as a celebrated and assertive con-
ception of an achieved social order that combined unity with modernity. It was also
a time when this self-conscious emphasis upon a predominant liberalism coincided
closely with a series of international developments that witnessed the emergence of
the US as a global superpower at the very time that its sense of national security and
social purpose came under increasing scrutiny. This is the context within which
Man, the State, and Warwas conceived and formulated. While it may be contended
that Waltz’s theoretical exegesis imparted a timeless property upon its subject field,
the contention is that it is legitimate to look more closely at the contemporary
landscape of social attitudes and political ideas in order to assess their influence upon
both the provenance and logic of Waltz’s position. By the same token, a review of
this kind will also allow for some estimation of the implications that can be drawn
from Waltz’s analysis upon the political debates surrounding one of the most
problematic aspects of American liberalism – namely its periodic fluctuations
between transformative international engagement and an equally principled impulse
towards withdrawal and dissociation from the international sphere.