The welfare of a state is always the welfare of this particular state. With its interests, its situation and its treaties.

What follows from this?

Government is a particular wisdom, not universal providence. A war is not just because it follows a thought of love for mankind. It is just when the welfare of the state suffers real injury or threat.

Morality against politics?

People have talked a lot about politics having to follow morality. But the welfare of a state has a quite different right than the welfare of an individual. The state takes its direction from its concrete existence. Not from universal thoughts that people take for moral commands.

The view that politics is always in the wrong against morality rests on shallow ideas. Ideas about morality, about the state and about how the two relate.

Summary: The state acts according to its particular welfare, not according to universal moral thoughts. The welfare of the state has a different right than that of the individual.