Politics Among Nations

Morgenthau argues that order and security exist within states because of the existence of the “state itself” (525). Because of this, one solution to the problem of war and the existential threat of nuclear weapons is for nations to relinquish some or all their sovereignty to an international political institution.

Conditions of Domestic Peace

Peace within a nation between different social groups is guaranteed by those groups’ sense of loyalty to their society and their confidence in the institutions that preserve justice. Members of different social groups can be both friends and enemies; for example, two groups may disagree on politics but may nonetheless share economic interests and other loyalties. Likewise, even members of different social groups are unified by a shared language, culture, values, and so on. Ensuring peace within a society “is the overwhelming power with which society can nip in the bud all attempts at disturbing the peace” through the government’s monopoly of violence or through social pressure (529).

Order and security within a nation are maintained by the state, which Morgenthau defines as “the legal order that determines the conditions under which society may employ its monopoly of organized violence for the preservation of order and peace” (531).