Good The Hobbesian World Essay Example

For Augustine of Hippo, politics were to be done in accordance to virtue so as to fulfill God’s plan. As such, he believes in a theory of just war, as nations may be intervened and subdued for their own good and that of their citizens. It is only through virtue and love that politicians should act, and their international relations should be guided by these positive sentiments. This would include the conversion of heretics and anti-Christians, even if through the use of force and confiscation of goods. As one can see, the morality in this theory is largely insignificant, as one can end up justifying anything as long as one does it out of love. While it is worthwhile to have ethical considerations when handling international politics, Augustine’s theory would not seem to achieve this.
According to Niccolo Machiavelli, the most important aspect in international relations would be realism. For him, it would be possible to justify anything by alluding to the state. This was in stark contradiction with the reigning points of view, which considered ethical and ideal positions to be more important than the acts themselves. A nation would have to hold up its virtues, something that Machiavelli deemed unrealistic.
For Diamond, it is important to study traditional societies in order to learn from them. It is a mistake to believe that modern societies are completely inferior to modern governments. Even though they may be lacking in areas such as technology and health, they may have better ways of raising children and other more humane activities.
Nevertheless, for him, politics is just a small phenomenon compared to geography, which is what he considers to be the main cause for societal progress. Even though he recognizes cultural and idiosyncratic differences, he does not take them into account as the factors responsible for international changes. For him, they would just be effects and manifestations for the technological development and diffusion, which could be facilitated by geography.
I find this last interpretation to be the one that fits the best with my experience living in the world. Technology is a very important component, and its development and use can configure how a whole society affects another group of people. The greatest demonstration of this was the atomic bombs deployed on Japan, which completely subdued them and ended the war. Civilizations before would have also probably been dominated in the same way.
Another important feature of his theory is the importance that he gives to those who one would think of as primitive. In this sense, just because the West is superior in a technological way does not mean that they are not superior in many others. In fact, one could see the West as being responsible for many atrocities due to this emphasis on technology. Therefore, it might be useful to stop giving so much weight to technological prowess, or at least determining their ethical value. Therefore, one can see that cultural and anthropological considerations are important to take into account, as they determine whether international relations are going in a desirable orientation or not.