Richard Ned Lebow
July 2005
FEAR, INTEREST AND HONOR:
A THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
DEAR APSA READERS. MY PAPER IS A DRAFT CHAPTER OF A BOOK THAT
DEVELOPS A THEORY OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. TO
SITUATE THE CHAPTER, I INCLUDE AT AN OVERVIEW OF THE THEORY AND
A CHAPTER OUTLINE.
PLAN OF THE BOOK
This chapter will outline a theory of international relations based on a simple set
of assumptions about human motives. Following the Greeks, I posit spirit, appetite and
reason as fundamental drives with distinct objects or ends. I describe the different
characteristics of spirit, appetite and reason-based worlds for individuals, societies and
regional and international political systems. As the three drives are always present – and
often, fear as well – real societies are mixed worlds that combine different mixes of
motives in varying degrees. They can also be lumpy, in that this mix differs among the
units or regions that make up the system.
The most stable and just individuals and societies are those in which reason is
able to constrain and educate spirit and appetite to work with it to achieve a happy life.
Such a state of balance is uncommon among individuals, and rarer still among the
societies in which they life, and hardly ever seen in the regional or international systems
in which these societies interact. Imbalance occurs when reason never gains control of
the spirit or appetite or subsequently loses control over either. Imbalance is a matter of
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