Why nations are egomaniacs

The work of American theologian and philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr is undergoing something of a revival these days.

Suddenly many people are reading and re-reading him. This is good.

Reading Niebuhr, who lived from 1892 until 1971, is not exactly an uplifting experience - he was, after all, convinced that selfishness and self-interest are man's most important motives.

He saw man as essentially evil. He believed tha...