Re-covering (the Use of) Tragedy in (International) Politics

• In Event: Tragedies of Politics in the Anthropocene: War, Violence, and Species Extinction

Abstract

Over the last twenty to twenty-five ears, international relations (IR) theory has turned to classic Greek tragedy to determine what resources, if any, it might provide for thinking about international politics, its assorted conflicts and struggles, its moral conundrums and agonies, and possible responses to them. Lebow, Erskine, and Frost, among others, have taken this tragic turn with panache. Given that the world of states and peoples is ineluctably plural, competitive, and antagonistic, and thus prone to violence and bloodshed as they pursue their contending visions, values, and interests on an interconnected, interdependent planet; and given that there is always going to be a distinct gap between the articulation of international political norms and ideals and their realization—sometimes despite the best efforts of international political actors, sometimes precisely because of those efforts, and sometimes in the face of no effort whatsoever—tragedy suggests itself as an invaluable interlocutor. Nevertheless, IR theory, in its encounter with Greek tragedy, has not necessarily taken full advantage of the resources at its disposal, suggesting that there is still much to be gained from tapping into them. Both partisans and skeptics of a tragic perspective tend to proffer conservative readings of its classic texts, Sophocles in particular, and cultivate what might be characterized as the cautionary lessons of Greek tragedy. Given how these ancient plays usually end, with self-induced disaster and destruction rooted in ignorance and overreach, this is not surprising. Yet a tragic perspective can offer more than negative examples of political conduct and well-timed warnings in order to avoid or lessen the impact of predictable mistakes. It can testify to political creativity and resilience, commitment and daring in an uncertain, opaque world in which political action is by definition fecund. In short, it can enable as well as disable. Pace Lebow, Frost, and others, then, I offer an-other tragic vision of politics rooted in a more capacious reading of Greek tragedy, the world it discloses, and the possibilities it harbors. Drawing on the reflections of Hans J. Morgenthau and the conception of tragedy he pursues in, among other works, Scientific Man vs. Power Politics. I argue that there is an un- or underappreciated aspect of his thinking about tragedy that warrants attention and elaboration as part of a vital tragic ethos that moves away from more traditional renderings of it. The idea is not to propose tragedy as some kind of panacea for longstanding and intractable international political ills. Rather, it is to argue that tragedy, contrary to widespread reputation, also fosters affirmative understandings and affects vis-à-vis the possibilities for and imperatives of political initiative that seem to get lost in many, perhaps most, versions of the tragic turn.

Author

• Steven Johnston, University of Utah