Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T00:28:14.359Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Paradox of “Just War” in Rousseau's Theory of Interstate Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2015

BLAISE BACHOFEN
BLAISE BACHOFEN*
Affiliation:
University of Cergy-Pontoise, Centre de Philosophie Juridique et Politique
*
Blaise Bachofen is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Law, University of Cergy Pontoise, 33 bd. du Port, Cergy-Pontoise, France95011 (blaise.bachofen@u-cergy.fr)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the Social Contract, Rousseau declares that he has given up the idea of discussing the “external relations” of states. Yet numerous texts—including a recently reconstituted work about the law of war—show that he thought very seriously about the question of the nature and origin of war and of the possibility of making war subject to the rule of law. Rousseau, in contrast to Hobbes, links war's appearance to that of the sovereign states; the state of war is therefore the necessary result of international relations. Moreover, he considers the international law as chimerical. How can he then conceive a non-utopian theory of “just war”? My hypothesis is that his conception of the law of war is deduced from principles of internal political law and arises from pragmatic necessity. The state that discredits itself in its manner of waging war weakens itself while believing that it is reinforcing itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 109 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 314 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aron, Raymond. 2001. Paix et guerre entre les nations. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.Google Scholar
Asbach, Olaf. 2002. Die Zähmung der Leviathane. Die Idee einer Rechtsdordnung zwischen Staaten bei Abbé de Saint-Pierre und Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Berlin: Akademie Verlag.Google Scholar
Bachofen, Blaise. 2012. “La nation, la patrie, le pays. La question de l’appartenance nationale chez Rousseau.” Annales J.-J. Rousseau 50. Genève: Droz, 267–98.Google Scholar
Bentham, Jeremy. 1789. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. London: T. Payne and Son.Google Scholar
Bernardi, Bruno, and Silvestrini, Gabriella. 2005. “Les Principes du droit de la guerre de J.-J. Rousseau, nouvel établissement du texte précédé d”une présentation.” Annales J.-J. Rousseau 46. Genève: Droz, 201–80.Google Scholar
Boucher, David. 2006. “Uniting What Right Permits with What Interest Prescribes: •Rawls's Law of Peoples in Context.” In Rawls's Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?, eds. David, R. and Martin, D. A.. Malden, MA: Malden Publishing, 19–37.Google Scholar
Brunstetter, Daniel R. 2014. “Trends in Just War Thinking during the US Presidential Debates 2000–12.” Review of International Studies 14: 1–23.Google Scholar
Brunstetter, Daniel R., and Holeindre, Jean-Vincent. 2012. “La guerre juste au prisme de la théorie politique.” Raisons politiques 45, 5–18.Google Scholar
Carter, Christine J. 1987. Rousseau and the Problem of War. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Clark, Ian. 1978. The Hierarchy of States: Reform and Resistance in the International Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clausewitz, Carl von. 1832. Vom Kriege. Berlin: Dümmlers Verlag.Google Scholar
Cottoni, Marie-Hélène. 2003. “Les notes marginales de Voltaire sur l’Extrait du Projet de paix perpétuelle de Castel de Saint-Pierre .” Revue Voltaire 3, 59–67.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Karl. 1953. “Nation Building and National Development: Some Issues for Political Research.” In Nation Building, eds. Deutsch, K. and Foltz, W. J.. New York: Atherton Press, 1–12.Google Scholar
Dreyfus-Brisac, Émile. 1896. Du Contrat social. Paris: Alcan.Google Scholar
Fetscher, Iring. 1975. Rousseaus politische Philosophie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Fournel, Jean-Louis. 2004. “La “brutalisation” de la guerre.” Asterion 2. http://asterion.revues.org/100Google Scholar
Gagnebin, Bernard. 1967. De Ronsard à Breton, Hommages à M. Raymond. Paris: José Corti.Google Scholar
Grotius, Hugo. 1814. On the Law of War and Peace, De Jure Belli ac Pacis. Translated by Campbell, A. C.. London: Walter Dunne.Google Scholar
Hassner, Pierre. 1997. “Rousseau and the Theory and Practice of International Relations.” In The Legacy of Rousseau, eds. Tarcov, N. and Orwin, C.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 200–19.Google Scholar
Havens, George R. 1933. Voltaire's Marginalia on the Pages of Rousseau: A Comparative Study of Ideas. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Friedrich. 1821. Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts. Berlin: Nicolai.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert. 1977. The Passions and the Interests, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1996. Leviathan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Stanley. 1965a. “Rousseau on War and Peace.” In The State of War, ed. Hoffmann, Stanley. New York: Praeger Publishers, 317–33.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Stanley. 1965b. “Rousseau, la guerre et la paix.” Annales de philosophie politique 5. Paris: Presses universitaires de France. 195–240.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Stanley, and Fidler, David P.. 1991. Rousseau on International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1991. Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose. In Political Writings, translated by Nisbet, H. B.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 41–53.Google Scholar
Lassudrie-Duchêne, Georges. 1906. J.-J. Rousseau et le droit des gens. Paris: H. Jouve.Google Scholar
Locke, John. 1993. Second Treatise . In Two Treatises of Government. London: Everyman Press, 113–240.Google Scholar
Lord, Christopher. 1999. Politics. Prague: Karolinum Press.Google Scholar
O’Driscoll, Cian. 2011. “Talking about Just War: Obama in Oslo, Bush at War.” Politics 31 (2): 82–90.Google Scholar
Orend, Brian. 2007. “ Jus Post Bellum: The Perspective of a Just-War Theorist.” Leiden Journal of International Law 20 (3): 571–91.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas W. 1994. “An Egalitarian Law of Peoples.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 23 (3): 195–224.Google Scholar
Ramsey, Paul. 1968. The Just War: Force and Political Responsibility. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1996. Le Droit des gens. Trans B. Guillarme of the first edition, The Law of Peoples). Paris: Esprit.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999. The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Riley, Patrick. 1973. “Rousseau as a Theorist of National and International Federalism.” Publius 3 (1): 5–7.Google Scholar
Roosevelt, Grace G. 1987. “A Reconstitution of Rousseau's Fragments on the State of War .” History of Political Thought 8: 225–32.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1964–95. Œuvres complètes in 5 Volumes, Gagnebin, B. and Raymond, M., eds. Paris: Gallimard-Pléiade.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1965–98. Correspondance complète in 52 Volumes, Leigh, R. A. ed. Geneva: Voltaire Foundation.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1986a. Considerations on the Government of Poland . Watkins, Trans. F.. In Political Writings. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 157–274.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1986b. Constitutional Project for Corsica . Trans. Watkins, F.. In Political Writings. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 275–330.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1995. The Confessions . Trans. Kelly, C.. In The Collected Writings of Rousseau, Vol. 5. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press, 1–550.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1997a. Discourse on Inequality . Trans. Gourevitch, V.. In The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 111–222.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1997b. Discourse on Political Economy . Trans. Gourevitch, V.. In The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 3–38.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1997c. Geneva Manuscript (early version of the Social Contract). Trans. Gourevitch, V.. In The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 153–61.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1997d. The Social Contract . Trans. Gourevitch, V.. In The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 39–152.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 2001. Letters Written from the Mountain . Trans. Kelly, C. and Bush, J. R., The Collected Writings of Rousseau, Vol. 9. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press, 131–306.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 2009. Abstract of Saint Pierre's Project for Perpetual Peace . Trans. Vaughan, C.. In A Lasting Peace through the Federation of Europe and the State of War. London: Constable and Co., 1917, Reprinted under the same title, Gloucester: Dodo Press, 15–40.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 2010. Émile . Trans. Kelly, C. and Bloom, A.. In The Collected Writings of Rousseau, Vol. 13. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press, 155–675.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 2012. Principles of the Right of War . Trans. Hoare, Q.. In Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings. London: Penguin Books, 153–68.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 1988. Der Nomos der Erde. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1953. Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Vattel, Emerich de. 1758. Le Droit des gens ou principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations et des souverains. London Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth. 1959. Man, the State, and War. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1977. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 2004. Arguing about War. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Windenberger, Joseph-Louis. 1899. Essai sur le système de politique étrangère de J.-J. Rousseau. La République confédérative des petits États. Paris: Picard et Fils.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.