Disciplinary Responses to Theology Brief Preview

States and Bureaucracies as Loveless Monsters?

Joerg Friedrichs

Associate Professor of Politics, Department of International Development, University of Oxford

Official Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford

In my field of international relations, Raymond Aron has famously called states “cold monsters” (following Nietzsche; Hobbesian Leviathans and Behemoths are lurking in the background). Monsters are proverbially loveless creatures, and I personally find the idea rather unappealing. Yet, my observations about states and other bureaucracies suggest that there could be an element of truth in the characterisation. I would love to see the final version, and indeed other GFI scholars, engaging with, and hopefully, refuting the idea of “cold monsters.”