Examples Of Hypocrisy In The 19th Century

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POSITION PAPER
Dora Kardos, ELTE International Studies BA
Organized hypocrisy in nineteenth-century East Asia

The main point of Stephen Krasner’s paper on the nineteenth-century East Asia is that the world of international relations has always been permeated by organized hypocrisy, a special behaviour of states in which they pretend to compel to the norms of their countries while actually acting according to what is best for their material interests. As Krasner states and later explains “in general, logics of consequences dictated behaviour while logics of appropriateness were rhetorically embraced; organized hypocrisy was rife.”
I agree that in some cases the logics of consequences and the importance of the given state’s material interests …show more content…

It is correct that in handling smaller, specific issues, questions and problems they often adapted the practice of organized hypocrisy which enabled them to tend towards action based on their material interests while covering it still with the appearance living up to the expectations. Yet if we are looking at the broader picture we can see that these starts were strongly constrained by their norms and their logics of appropriateness which resulted in them failing politically both domestically and internationally -while those who managed to adjust to Western norms and found a balance that promoted their security and economic interest .
Therefore, Stephen Krasner’s statement that “in general, the logics of consequences dictated behaviour while logics of appropriateness were rhetorically embraced” is not correct, or at least just partially, in certain cases, regarding the international relations practices of the East Asian countries in the nineteenth