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Raymond Aron was an pioneer in the study of international relations, but his value has yet to be fully recognized given his sparse reception in the field. This article will look at the reasons for this paradox. Often grouped under the umbrella of American political realism, Aron stands out through his focus on ideological factors and on the variable of the political regime. While helping to disseminate the ideas of others, he also elaborated his own well-defined theory, whose scope was situated somewhere between the humanities and the social sciences. Aron is finally being rediscovered amidst the contemporary desire to go beyond traditional paradigms. Reading Aron invites us to step outside the confines of political science, both in relation to the present (in order to transform history into an asset) and in relation to the imperatives of political action (in order to adopt the reflexive perspective of political theory).