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Lying in International Politics
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one of the major obstacles to ending the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
I believe, however, that the causal arrow goes in the other direction:
foreign policy behavior drives the making of nationalist myths. Specifically, the rhetoric of nationalism is tailored to suit the behavior of states, which is driven largely by other calculations. This is not to deny that nationalist myths sometimes affect foreign policy-making. Those effects, however, are usually of secondary or tertiary importance. THE CONSEQUENCES OF ANTI-REALIST LYING
Anti-realist lying also has few negative consequences. The same
collective self-delusion that attends nationalist myth-making works here as well, i.e., most people do not recognize that lying is taking place. Thus, there is not much danger of blowback.
Moreover, anti-realist lies do not affect foreign policy in any
meaningful way. Remember, states usually act according to the dictates of realism, regardless of the rhetoric they employ to explain their behavior. As with nationalist myth-making, the causal arrow runs from foreign policy calculations to rhetoric, not the other way around. CONCLUSION
Three broad conclusions can be drawn from this analysis. First, there
is a considerable amount of lying in international relations and there are usually good strategic reasons for it. That is not the case, however, in the domestic realm, where lying is almost always detrimental to society. Second, there are four different kinds of international lying – inter-state lying, fear-mongering, nationalist myth-making, and anti-realist lying – and each has a different but compelling logic. Third, fear-mongering is the most dangerous form of lying. It not only threat to damage the body politic by fostering a culture of dishonesty, but it is the most likely of the four kinds of lying to produce a foreign-policy debacle.
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| | Authors: Mearsheimer, John. |
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18
one of the major obstacles to ending the ongoing conflict between Israel and
the Palestinians.
I believe, however, that the causal arrow goes in the other direction:
foreign policy behavior drives the making of nationalist myths. Specifically,
the rhetoric of nationalism is tailored to suit the behavior of states, which is
driven largely by other calculations. This is not to deny that nationalist
myths sometimes affect foreign policy-making. Those effects, however, are
usually of secondary or tertiary importance.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF ANTI-REALIST LYING
Anti-realist lying also has few negative consequences. The same
collective self-delusion that attends nationalist myth-making works here as
well, i.e., most people do not recognize that lying is taking place. Thus,
there is not much danger of blowback.
Moreover, anti-realist lies do not affect foreign policy in any
meaningful way. Remember, states usually act according to the dictates of
realism, regardless of the rhetoric they employ to explain their behavior. As
with nationalist myth-making, the causal arrow runs from foreign policy
calculations to rhetoric, not the other way around.
CONCLUSION
Three broad conclusions can be drawn from this analysis. First, there
is a considerable amount of lying in international relations and there are
usually good strategic reasons for it. That is not the case, however, in the
domestic realm, where lying is almost always detrimental to society.
Second, there are four different kinds of international lying – inter-state
lying, fear-mongering, nationalist myth-making, and anti-realist lying – and
each has a different but compelling logic. Third, fear-mongering is the most
dangerous form of lying. It not only threat to damage the body politic by
fostering a culture of dishonesty, but it is the most likely of the four kinds of
lying to produce a foreign-policy debacle.
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