Political thinking in action: realism as ideology in the discourses of Macron, Orbán, and Scholz about Ukraine

Despite growing attention to realism in political theory, there remains a notable gap in understanding how politicians adopt, interpret, or contest the realist approach. This gap is particularly striking given that realist theory fundamentally hinges upon grounding theoretization in the realities of politics. This article turns to the political discourse surrounding the war in Ukraine to examine the role of realist argumentation in justifying and guiding political action. In contrast to the rejection or critique of ideologies in contemporary realist theory, our analysis, adopting a morphological approach of the discourses articulated by Emmanuel Macron, Viktor Orbán, and Olaf Scholz, revealed the substantive and ideological nature of realism. Our findings underscore the potential for starting realist theorizing by considering the realities of political practice, namely that realism must be situated between fidelity to reality and the uncertainties of dissimulation.