Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T00:24:19.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Kant and the Kantian paradigm in international relations*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Andrew Hurrell
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Although few in number and limited in scope, Kant's writings on international relations have had a lasting influence and have given rise to a wide range of interpretations. Kant's famous pamphlet, Perpetual Peace, has been seen as advocating federalism, world government, a League of Nations-type security system and outright pacifism. Underlying much of the debate on Kant lies a divergence over the relationship between what might broadly be called the ‘statist’ and the ‘cosmopolitan’ sides of Kant's writings. On one side, there are those who argue that Kant is primarily concerned with order at the level of interstate relations. Kant, it is argued, did not want to transcend the state system but to improve it. He wanted to subject the international anarchy to law and to find a solution to the problem of war but in a way which would not sacrifice the essential autonomy and independence of states.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 1990 , pp. 183 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1990

References

1 Hinsley, F. H., Power and the Pursuit of Peace, (Cambridge, 1980)Google Scholar, ch. 2. See also his Nationalism and the International System (New York, 1973), ch. 4.Google Scholar

2 Hinsley, , Power and the Pursuit of Peace, p. 69.Google Scholar

3 Ibid. p. 62.

4 Ibid. p. 66.

5 Gallie, W. B., Philosophers of War and Peace (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 10 and 20.Google Scholar

6 Ibid. p. 21. Other writers who tend towards a more statist view of Kant, particularly on the limited nature of Kant's federations, include Clark, Ian, Reform and Resistance in the International Order (Cambridge, 1980)Google Scholar, ch. 2; Riley, Patrick, Kant's Political Philosophy (Totowa, NJ, 1983), especially pp. 118–119Google Scholar; and to a lesser extent, Williams, Howard, Kant's Political Philosophy (Oxford, 1985)Google Scholar, especially ch. 10.

7 See Hedley Bull, ‘Society and Anarchy in International Relations’, in Butterfield, Herbert and Wight, Martin (eds.), Diplomatic Investigations (London, 1966)Google Scholar; Wight, Martin, ‘An Anatomy of International Thought,’ Review of International Studies 13, 3 (07 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bull, Hedley, ‘Martin Wight and the Theory of International Relations’, British Journal of International Studies 2, 2 (07 1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bull, Hedley, The Anarchical Society (London, 1979), pp. 25–26Google Scholar; and Brian Porter, ‘Patterns of Thought and Practice: Martin Wight's ‘international theory’ ‘ in Donelan, Michael (ed.), The Reason of States (London, 1978)Google Scholar. The universalist or cosmopolitan view of Kant is not of course limited to Bull and Wight. For a survey of earlier views of this kind, see Kinsley, Power and the Pursuit of Peace, p. 374 and Gallie, , Philosophers of War and Peace, pp. 9 and 144Google Scholar. For a further interpretation along these lines which relates Kant to the broader tradition of cosmopolitanism in the eighteenth century, see Schlereth, Thomas, The Cosmopolitan Ideal in Enlightenment Thought (Notre Dame, 1977), pp. 124–125Google Scholar.

8 Bull, ‘Martin Wight and the Theory of International Relations’, p. 106.

9 Unpublished lecture notes on Kant which formed part of a series on ‘International Thinkers’.

10 Bull, , The Anarchical Society, p. 25.Google Scholar

11 Bull, , The Anarchical Society, p. 26.Google Scholar

12 Wight, , ‘The Anatomy of International Thought’, pp. 223–224.Google Scholar

13 Perpetual Peace, in Reiss, Hans (ed.), Kant's Political Writings (Cambridge, 1970)Google Scholar, p. 102. Unless otherwise stated all references are to this edition and the following abbreviations will be used: Perpetual Peace: PP; Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose: IH; On the Common Saying: ‘This May be True in Theory but it does not Apply in Practice': TP; The Metaphysics of Morals: MM; The Contest of the Faculties: CF. Original German texts are from Immanuel Kant, , Werke in Sechs Banden (Wiesbaden, 1960).Google Scholar

14 PP, Reiss, p. 98.

15 PP, Reiss, p. 98.

16 MM, Reiss, p. 165.

17 TP, Reiss, p. 91.

18 IH, Reiss, p. 45.

19 CF, Reiss, p. 183 and PP, Reiss, p. 103.

20 IH, Reiss, p. 47.

21 MM, Reiss, p. 175.

22 Bull, Hedley, ‘Hobbes and the International Anarchy’, Social Research 48 (Winter 1981), p. 727.Google Scholar

23 PP, Reiss, p. 96.

24 MM, Reiss, p. 167.

25 MM, Reiss, p. 167.

26 MM, Reiss, p. 168.

27 MM, Reiss, p. 168.

28 PP, Reiss, p. 96

29 PP, Reiss, p. 103.

30 MM, Reiss, p. 171.

31 IH, Reiss, p. 49.

32 IH, Reiss, p. 49.

33 TP, Reiss, p. 92.

34 TP, Reiss, p. 90, and Waltz, Kenneth, ‘Kant, Liberalism and War’, American Political Science Review 56 (1961), p. 338.Google Scholar

35 PP, Reiss, p. 104.

36 PP, Reiss, p. 107.

37 PP, Reiss, p. 105.

38 TP, Reiss, p. 90. See also PP, Reiss, p. 112.

39 PP, Reiss, p. 104.

40 PP, Reiss, p. 94.

41 PP, Reiss, p. 113.

42 MM, Reiss, p. 171.

43 Religion within the Limits of Reason, in Friedrich, Carl (ed.),The Philosophy of Kant (New York, 1949), p. 381.Google Scholar

44 Interpretations of Kant are complicated by the variety of German terms (Völkerbund, Föderation, Föderalitat, Verbindung, Genossenschaft), by the tendency to translate many of these terms with the single word ‘federation’, and by the preconceptions that arise from modern usage. This article uses the general term ‘federation’ but endeavours to demonstrate the different kinds of organizations or associations that Kant was discussing in his various works on the subject. It should also be pointed out that Kant's own usage is not always helpful. For instance, the phrase Völkerbund is used in The Ideafor a Universal History and The Metaphysics of Morals to describe two very different kinds of organization.

45 IH, Reiss, p. 47.

46 IH, Reiss, p. 47.

47 IH, Reiss, p. 49.

48 IH, Reiss, p. 51.

49 TP, Reiss, p. 90.

50 TP, Reiss, p. 90.

51 TP, Reiss, p. 90.

52 TP, Reiss, p. 92.

53 MM, Reiss, p. 171.

54 IH, Reiss, p. 46.

55 PP, Reiss, p. 130.

56 PP, Reiss, p. 105.

57 PP, Reiss, pp. 102 and 104.

58 PP, Reiss, p. 113.

59 PP, Reiss, p. 104.

60 PP, Reiss, p. 129.

61 MM, Reiss, p. 165.

62 MM, Reiss, p. 171.

63 This takes Kant closer to Rousseau's view of the need for a confederation as the only way of safeguarding small and politically virtuous states against the vicissitudes of the international anarchy. See Stanley Hoffman, ‘Rosseau on War and Peace’, American Political Science Review 57, 2 (June 1963), pp. 327–31.

64 Doyle, Michael, ‘Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 12, 3 (Summer 1983), p. 230.Google Scholar

65 Doyle, , ‘Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs’, p. 227.Google Scholar

66 Waltz, Kenneth, Man, the State and War (New York, 1959).Google Scholar

67 PP, Reiss, p. 103, and IH, Reiss, p. 42.

68 PP, Reiss, p. 111.

69 PP, Reiss, pp. 95 and 103. On how widespread was the view that war was the sport of kings see Schlereth, The Cosmopolitan Ideal, pp. 112–17.

70 Exactly how domestic reform is to be achieved remains a problem for Kant. This is due partly to his denial of the right of rebellion. It is also due to his belief that ‘the problem of establishing a perfect civil constitution is dependent [my emphasis] upon the problem of a law-governed relationship between states’. There is a chicken and egg dilemma here that Kant never fully resolves.

71 PP, Reiss, p. 94.

72 IH, Reiss, p. 48.

73 PP, Reiss, p. 104. There is a large literature dealing with the nature of Kant's republics. See especially Williams, Kant's Political Philosphy, chs. 5–8.

74 PP, Reiss, p. 100.

75 TP, Reiss, pp. 90–1.

76 TP, Reiss, p. 90.

77 See Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations (Chicago, 1976Google Scholar), II, pp. 462–3. See also pp. 338–9, 444–6 and 455–6.

78 PP, Reiss, 113.

79 Dick Howard, ‘Kanf s Political Theory: The Virtue of his Vices’, Review of Metaphysics 34 (December 1980), p. 346.

80 MM, Reiss, p. 174.

81 For a recent assessment of the impact of ethical constrants on international behaviour, see James Lee Ray, ‘The Abolition of Slavery and the End of International War’, International Organization 43, 3 (Summer 1989).

82 TP, Reiss, p. 92.

83 There is a large literature dealing with Kant's philosophy of history. See especially, Williams, Kant's Political Philosophy, ch. 1; G. A. Kelly, ‘Rousseau, Kant and History’, Journal of the History of Ideas 29 (1968); and E. L. Fackenheim, ‘Kant's Concept of History’, Kant-Studien 48 (1956–7).

84 IH, Reiss, p. 45.

85 IH, Reiss, p. 47.

86 For a detailed analysis of the realist critique of utopianism, see Clarke, Reform and Resistance, ch. 2.

87 Eternal Peace, in Friedrich, The Philosophy of Kant, p. 454.

88 PP, Reiss, p. 114.

89 IH, Reiss, p. 51.

90 IH, Reiss, p. 50.

91 Principles of Political Right, quoted in Waltz, ‘Kant, Liberalism and War’, p. 334.

92 Bull, , The Anarchical Society, p. 262.Google Scholar

93 PP, Reiss, p. 103.

94 Doyle, ‘Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs’. My interpretation differs from Doyle's in laying greater weight on Kant's belief in the moral improvement of individuals and on the specific role of various types of federations that Kant discusses.

95 TP, Reiss, p. 89. This brings out once more the primacy of moral considerations in Kant's view of international relations. As Pierre Hassner has said, Kant's political ideas were ‘une philosophic politique sans politique’. Pierre Hassner, ‘Les concepts de guerre et de paix chez Kant’, Revue Francaise de Science Politique 11 (September 1961), p. 642.

96 Buzan, Barry, People, States and Fear (London, 1983), pp. 96–97.Google Scholar

97 Walzer, Michael, Just and Unjust Wars (London, 1980Google Scholar), especially Part II, and Beitz, Charles, Political Theory and International Relations (Princeton, 1979).Google Scholar

98 PP, Reiss, p. 96.

99 PP, Reiss, p. 96.

100 Friedrich, Carl, Inevitable Peace (Cambridge, 1948), p. 178CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On this point, see Vincent, R. J., Non-intervention and International Order (Princeton, 1974), pp. 56–58.Google Scholar

101 MM, Reiss, p. 173.

102 Religion within the Limits of Reason, in Friedrich (ed.), The Philosophy of Kant, p. 381.

103 Williams, , Kant's Political Philosophy, p. 131.Google Scholar

104 For a discussion of the weaknesses of this argument, see Acton, H. B., Kant's Moral Philosophy (London, 1970), pp. 60–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

105 On this point, see James Fishkin, ‘Theories of Justice and International Relations: The Limits of Liberal Theory’, in Ellis, Anthony (ed.), Ethics and International Relations (Manchester, 1986Google Scholar) and the debate between Michael Walzer and David Luban in Beitz, Charles et al. (eds.), International Ethics (Princeton, 1985Google Scholar), Part IV.

106 Bull, , The Anarchical Society, p. 26.Google Scholar

107 Williams, , Kant's Political Philosophy, pp. 260–268.Google Scholar

108 Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, Friedrich, (ed.), The Philosophy of Kant, pp. 405–406.Google Scholar

109 For a discussion of this problem, see Linklater, Andrew, Men and Citizens in the Theory of International Relations (London, 1982CrossRefGoogle Scholar), especially ch. 7.

110 PP, Reiss, pp. 98–9.

111 MM, Reiss, p. 172.

112 PP, Reiss, p. 105.

113 MM, Reiss, p. 172.

114 Let us add finally that, though the advantages resulting to commerce from a great and lasting peace are in themselves certain and indisputable, still, being common to all States, they will be appreciated by none. For such advantages make themselves felt only by contrast, and he who wishes to increase his relative power is bound to seek only such gains as are exclusive’, Rousseau, Judgement on Saint-Pierre's Project for Perpetual Peace, in Forsyth, M.et al. (ed.), The Theory of International Relations. Selected Texts (London, 1970), p. 160.Google Scholar

115 IH, Reiss, p. 51.

116 PP, Reiss, pp. 107–8.

117 IH, Reiss, p. 51.

118 An interesting indication of the reemergence of Kantian perspectives can be seen in the following quotation by the Soviet philosopher lu. A. Zomoshkin: ‘This ideal [general disarmament] is expressed as a moral law, a categorical imperative in the sense of the term used by I. Kant, whose profound reflections upon the role of the ideal have become especially precious in our time. It is an imperative which emerges as the voice of duty and conscience, as a moral-legal ‘maxim’ possessing general, universal significance’, In A. Zamoshkin, ‘Ideal iadernogo razruzheniia i problema ego realizatsii (filosofskie i psikhologicheskie aspekty’, [The ideal of nuclear disarmament and the problem of its realization—philosophical and psychological aspects], Voprosy Filosofii 1 (1988), p. 90.