The Community of Interests and the Responsible Leadership in Hans J. Morgenthau’s Political Thought and Their Inspirations for the Contemporary European Integration Process

This article refers to the concepts of the community of interests and the responsible leadership present in Hans J. Morgenthau’s political thought. The author analyses both ideas in a broader context of Morgenthau’s understanding of power and politics and the need to master the destructive potential of politics. The second aim of the article, however, is to indicate the community of interest and the responsible leadership as two interesting points of reference while analyzing the process of European integration and its current problems. The article concludes that both concepts remain the useful tools in this analysis and without the reference to the community of interests it would be difficult to talk about the effectiveness of the mechanisms aimed at limiting the presence of power in Europe. The case of the responsible leadership is a bit more problematic in this regard yet the responsible leadership remains the indispensable element of the regional strategy to master the destructive potential of politics in Europe. Finally the author refers to possible consequences following the collapse of the mechanisms that Europe has so far developed to tame and limit the struggle for power on the continent.