ies of day by day statesmanship."6 Niebuhr thought that, quite clearly, national interest should be a primary motivator for a nation in the conduct of international relations.
While Niebuhr advocated a realistic approach to the development and application of foreign policy, he emphasized that such realism must be tempered by a Christian perspective particularly a recognition of the reality of sin. This Christian perspective, according to Niebuhr, would (1) prevent the realist from defining national interest in too narrow terms, (2) spur the realist to seek a coincidence between national interest and transcendent religious values, (3) keep the realist from
6Gordon Harland, The Thought of Reinhold Niebuhr (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960), 192 193.
succumbing moral cynicism, which, in turn, will (4) reduce the probability that the realist will assume an attitude of moral pretension.7 Thus, Niebuhr sought a linkage of realistic political action and his notion of a realistic Christian
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