Joseph S. Nye, Jr. at The Harvard Coop

Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump

Discussion/Signing with Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

In his new book, Do Morals Matter ?, leading scholar of international relations, Joseph S. Nye, Jr provides readers with an answer: “We can start by making sure we judge them in terms of our three-dimensional ethics, and we can draw the wisdom of all three mental maps of realism, liberalism, and cosmopolitanism in that order.” Nye provides a penetrating analysis of the role of ethics in American foreign policy after 1945 by examining each presidency from Truman to Trump. He scores their foreign policy on the three ethical dimensions of their intentions, the means they used, and the consequences of their decisions. In addition, Nye evaluates their leadership qualities, elaborating on which approaches work and which ones do not.