Response from Anatol Lieven
I must thank the authors for their most interesting responses to my book, and their contributions to the debate on climate change – which, as we all agree, is by far the greatest threat now facing humanity. Hans Morgenthau stated that the main guiding intellectual principle of Realism is ‘interest defined in terms of power’. As a Realist, I would say that the overriding long term vital interest of all major states is the need to limit climate change; and the overriding need is to mobilize the power necessary to achieve this. I regard nationalism as a potentially useful tool in this regard, though by no means the only one. Pace Dr Braun, I do not regard it as a ‘doctrine’. As a follower of Edmund Burke, one thing I try very hard not to be is doctrinaire.
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