The past two years have made one truth unmistakable: international politics remains a contest of power. Israelis, Palestinians, and Iranians stand where they do at the end of the war because of asymmetries of strength and skill. International courts and NGOs roared from the sidelines, but the game was decided on the field.
Yet there is also a second truth: power alone is not enough.
The Christian realist practices a limited realism—one bounded by awareness of the unseen realm and God’s hidden purposes in history. Unlike the pacifist, he respects the use of power to restrain evil. But unlike other realists, he remembers that invisible forces are always shaping history and driving it toward an appointed end. In an age obsessed with winning and losing, he knows that political victories often coexist with spiritual defeats, and that the sons of Adam are never simply winning or losing—they are always doing both at once.
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