INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST
 
http://www.integralworld.net
Newsletter Nr. 1.443
Amsterdam, November 10, 2025


Realism and Idealism in the Gaza War - Can the Narratives Be Reconciled? - Frank Visser / ChatGPT

The war in Gaza, reignited by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and Israel's devastating military response, has become one of the most polarizing conflicts of the 21st century. Beneath the tragedy lies a deeper philosophical divide in international thought: the clash between Realism and Idealism.

These two lenses—one grounded in power and security, the other in morality and justice—shape not only how nations act, but how the world interprets those actions. The Gaza war, more than any other recent conflict, reveals their mutual incomprehension and the urgent need for synthesis.

Read more:
https://www.integralworld.net/visser645.html?y


Realism and Idealism in the Ukraine War - Can the Narratives Be Reconciled? - Frank Visser / ChatGPT

The war in Ukraine—brutal, protracted, and globally consequential—has been interpreted through two opposing paradigms.

For realists, it is the foreseeable outcome of great-power insecurity and the West's failure to understand balance-of-power logic.
For idealists, it is a moral struggle between democracy and autocracy, freedom and coercion, right and might.

Both perspectives contain genuine insight but omit essential dimensions of the other. The tragedy of Ukraine is not only a clash of states but a collision of worldviews—between the realism of power and the idealism of principle. Understanding this conflict requires examining the roots, the tensions, and the possible synthesis between them.

Read more:
https://www.integralworld.net/visser644.html?y