Realism, idealism not polar opposites, professor says
By Mary Morgan | December 4, 2009The University of Richmond's department of religion presented James Turner Johnson, a professor from Rutgers University, to lead a discussion titled "Realism, Idealism, and Just War: Thing about the Use of Force in American Debate." Johnson, a professor of religion and associate of the graduate program in political science at Rutgers, argued against realists' either-or dichotomy that separates realism and idealism as polar opposites. Johnson attributed the birth of political realism to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and political scientist Hans Morgenthau, who flourished from the 1930s through the 1950s.