raison d'état

[re-zawn dey-ta]

noun

French.

plural

raisons d'état 

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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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