raison d'état

[ re-zawn dey-ta ]

noun

, French.

, plural rai·sons d'é·tat [r, e-zaw, n, dey-, ta]

1. a purely political reason for governmental action, based on the national interest and often violating principles of justice.

Word History and Origins

Origin of raison d'état¹

Literally, “reason of state”

Example Sentences

They believe in no higher cause than raison d’état.

From Washington Post

Speaking to the Knesset in 2008, she said the existence of the Jewish state was part of Germany’s raison d’état and non-negotiable.

From Economist

The plan is further vindication of Max Blumenthal’s central thesis in his new book, “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel,” namely that Israel’s raison d’etat is the maintenance and expansion of a colonial ethnocracy — the expansion of the Jewish Israeli demographic, the containment of all others.

From Salon

They wondered at the stubborn elevation of private property over raison d'état, of personal freedom over collective need.

From Wall Street Journal

For example, that of the extent to which the special relations between the German government and Israel — which under Chancellor Angela Merkel have been elevated to the status of a raison d’état — actually reflects German reality.

From Time