Issues of War & Peace

1. Issues of War & Peace Liberal Explanations

2. Overview • Recapping the Realist Argument • Kant’s “Perpetual Peace” • Wilson’s “League of Nations”

3. Realism • The international political system is anarchic • Anarchy is a self-help system • States act to maximize their security • Power is the key to maximizing security • War is a consequence of attempts to protect perceived challenges to power or to increase deficits of power • Peace is a consquence of a balance of power among the major states in the system

4. Immanuel Kant • Prussian born (1724-1804) • Born, lived, and died in Königsburg, never travelling more than 50 miles from his home • One of the leading minds of the Enlightenment

5. Europe 1800 Königsberg

6. Königsburg/Kaliningrad

7. Immanuel Kant • Attended a religious (Pietist) school from age 8 to 16 before enrolling in University of Königsburg (1740) • His mom died a few years before; dad couldn’t afford to pay, so he had to take job tutoring and to rely on aid from relatives • Quits school in 1747 because he couldn’t afford it and takes up job as tutor to the children of various wealthy families in the area

8. Immanuel Kant • In 1755 (31 years old!) he goes back to university and completes his studies • Spent next 15 years working as a lecturer at the university (rather than as a professor); turned down professorships at the university and at University of Jena • In 1770 he accepts position as professor of logic and metaphysics at University of Königsburg, and stays in that position for next 27 years.

9. Kant’s Perpetual Peace “Whether this satirical inscription on a Dutch innkeeper's sign upon which a burial ground was painted had for its object mankind in general, or the rulers of states in particular, who are insatiable of war, or merely the philosophers who dream this sweet dream, it is not for us to decide”

10. Kant’s Perpetual Peace “But one condition the author of this essay wishes to lay down. The practical politician assumes the attitude of looking down with great self-satisfaction on the political theorist as a pedant whose empty ideas in no way threaten the security of the state, inasmuch as the state must proceed on empirical principles; so the theorist is allowed to play his game without interference from the worldly-wise statesman...”

11. Kant’s Perpetual Peace “Such being his attitude, the practical politician--and this is the condition I make--should at least act consistently in the case of a conflict and not suspect some danger to the state in the political theorist's opinions which are ventured and publicly expressed without any ulterior purpose. By this clausulasalvatoria the author desires formally and emphatically to deprecate herewith any malevolent interpretation which might be placed on his words.”

12. Preliminary Articles 1. "No Treaty of Peace Shall Be Held Valid in WhichThere Is Tacitly Reserved Matter for a FutureWar“ What conditions would have to exist among nations for this preliminary article to be realized?

13. Preliminary Articles 2. "No Independent States, Large or Small, Shall Come under the Dominion of Another State by Inheritance, Exchange, Purchase, or Donation" What conception of the state and sovereignty must exist for this preliminary article to be realized?

14. Europe 1800

15. Preliminary Articles 3. "Standing Armies (miles perpetuus) Shall in Time Be Totally Abolished" Are standing armies necessary? What alternatives are there? What conditions are necessary for these alternatives to be realized?

16. Preliminary Articles 4. "National Debts Shall Not Be Contracted with a View to the External Friction of States“ (States should not take on debt to finance military growth) Why is this sort of debt so dangerous?

17. Preliminary Articles 5. "No State Shall by Force Interfere with the Constitutionor Governmentof Another State" Why should states refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of other states? Are there exceptions to this rule?

18. Preliminary Articles 6. "No State Shall,duringWar, Permit Such Acts of Hostility Which Would Make Mutual Confidence in the Subsequent Peace Impossible: Such Are the Employmentof Assassins (percussores), Poisoners (venefici), Breach of Capitulation, and Incitement to Treason (perduellio) in the Opposing State"

19. Preliminary Articles What damage do these tools do in peacetime? Why should states refrain from using them?

20. Preliminary Articles “It follows that a war of extermination, in which the destruction of both parties and of all justice can result, would permit perpetual peace only in the vast burial ground of the human race.”

21. Definitive Articles “The state of peace among men living side by side is not the natural state (status naturalis); the natural state is one of war. This does not always mean open hostilities, but at least an unceasing threat of war. A state of peace, therefore, must be established, for in order to be secured against hostility it is not sufficient that hostilities simply be not committed; and, unless this security is pledged to each by his neighbor (a thing that can occur only in a civil state), each may treat his neighbor, from whom he demands this security, as an enemy.”

22. Definitive Articles "The Civil Constitution of Every State Should Be Republican“ What makes a state republican?

23. Definitive Articles “This constitution is established, firstly, by principles of the freedom of the members of a society (as men); secondly, by principles of dependence of all upon a single common legislation (as subjects); and, thirdly, by the law of their equality (as citizens). The republican constitution, therefore, is, with respect to law, the one which is the original basis of every form of civil constitution. The only question now is: Is it also the one which can lead to perpetual peace?”

24. Definitive Articles Why are republics more prone to peace, and nonrepublics to war? Would a world composed entirely of republics act as Kant describes?

25. Definitive Articles "The Law of Nations Shall be Founded on a Federation of Free States“ What does he mean by “Federation”

26. Definitive Articles “This would be a league of nations, but it would not have to be a state consisting of nations. That would be contradictory, since a state implies the relation of a superior (legislating) to an inferior (obeying), i.e., the people, and many nations in one state would then constitute only one nation. This contradicts the presupposition, for here we have to weigh the rights of nations against each other so far as they are distinct states and not amalgamated into one.”

27. Federations States B C D A

28. Federations SG SG SG SG SG = Sovereign Government

29. Federations SG SG SG SG Government Government that is not Sovereign but to which each state pledges allegiance

30. Federations SG SG SG SG Government Voluntary union of independent states

31. Definitive Articles "The Law of World Citizenship Shall Be Limited to Conditions of Universal Hospitality"

32. Definitive Articles “Hospitality means the right of a stranger not to be treated as an enemy when he arrives in the land of another. One may refuse to receive him when this can be done without causing his destruction; but, so long as he peacefully occupies his place, one may not treat him with hostility. It is not the right to be a permanent visitor that one may demand.”

33. Definitive Articles “Since the narrower or wider community of the peoples of the earth has developed so far that a violation of rights in one place is felt throughout the world, the idea of a law of world citizenship is no high-flown or exaggerated notion. It is a supplement to the unwritten code of the civil and international law, indispensable for the maintenance of the public human rights and hence also of perpetual peace. One cannot flatter oneself into believing one can approach this peace except under the condition outlined here.”

34. Definitive Articles • Does this “wider community” exist today? • Are injustices in one part of the world felt in all other parts?

35. First Supplement • Kant uses this supplement to extend the argument in the shorter “Articles” • He provides the underlying rationale for why he believes perpetual peace is very likely our future

36. First Supplement • Nature is designed such that perpetual peace is inevitable “In her mechanical course we see that her aim is to produce a harmony among men, against their will and indeed through their discord. As a necessity working according to laws we do not knw, we call it destiny.”

37. Wilson and the Community of Power • Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) • 28th President of the U.S • Born in Staunton, Virginia, but attended College of New Jersey (Princeton) • Earned degree in political science (1879), studied law at UVA, and earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins (1885)

38. Wilson and the Community of Power • Took a professorship at Princeton, was eventually elected President of the University • 1911 elected as New Jersey governor • 1912 elected President of the US • Relected in 1916 • Nobel Peace Prize winner 1919