Weekly Writing Assignment:
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WeekFive-ppt.pptxLiberalism and IR
Development of INR – Week 5
Kant Essay on Theory and Practice
Core question: is the writing of political thought useful?
Are philosophers/academics unrealistic in their discussion of politics?
Is their thought applicable in actual politics?
Implications for IR and the development of projects for perpetual peace.
Page 430 on cosmopolitan constitution
Page 431 Balance of Power; the ridicule of statesmen of the notions of perpetual peace.
Kant’s Perpetual Peace
Remember the disclaimer (Page 432).
Fear of ideas and their ability to materialize as catalysts for revolution.
Why would anyone fear Perpetual Peace?
What does it imply about the state, monarch?
What is Kant doing here?
Written as if it was a peace treaty.
Key Elements in Perpetual Peace
Every state must have a republican constitution that protects the rights of its citizens and political institutions that promote equality and freedom. Freedom is a key concept in Kantian moral philosophy (i.e. human autonomy). Republican states less likely to engage in warfare: “But under a constitution where the subject is not a citizen, and which is therefore not republican, it is the simplest thing in the world to go to war.” (6)
Cont.
The establishment of a federation of peoples. A type of international institution that is not akin to a state but “merely to preserve and secure the freedom of each state in itself…although this does not mean that they need to submit to public laws and to a coercive power which enforces them…” (8)
Cont.
Observance of cosmopolitan right: universal hospitality implies a right to be a guest but not to settle let alone conquer. A critique of European commercial policy of the times.
Preliminary Articles
1) No conclusion of peace shall be considered valid as such if it was made with a secret reservation of the material for a future war.
2) No independently existing state, whether it be large or small, may be acquired by another states by inheritance, exchange, purchase or gift.
3) Standing armies will gradually be abolished.
Cont.
4) No national debt shall be contracted in connection with the external affairs of state.
5) No state shall forcibly interface in the constitution and government of another state.
6) No state at war with another shall permit such acts of hostility as would make mutual confidence impossible during a future time of peace.
Cosmopolitan Right
Hospitality: “means the right of a stranger not to be treated with hostility when he arrives on someone else’s territory” (441).
The world is limited in space: “[men] cannot disperse over an infinite area, but must necessarily tolerate each one another’s company” (441).
Importance of nature as the guarantor of perpetual peace (443).
Cont.
Note the example of who acts inhospitably: Barbary pirates. Talks about the “natural right of hospitality” which means what?
Reference to commerce: right to seek commerce (445). Could this be problematic?
Liberalism
For Hobbes, individuals motivates by fear.
Beginning with Locke: emphasis on human rationality.
Rationality can mitigate the worst impulses of the state of nature.
Consent of the governed implies limitations of sovereign power
Importance of individual decision-making (recall Luther).
Liberalism
Emphasis on individual liberty understood in terms of the absence of state restraint:
Private property
Rule of Law
Challenge to the diving right of kings
Prerogatives of the aristocracy (nineteenth century)
Economic freedom
Beginnings of industrial commerce (Late 18th century)
Self-interest and autonomy (Kant).
Liberalism and IR
What restraints on sovereign action are possible in international politics?
What are the limits to sovereign violence?
Is it strictly based on ‘law’?
What does the emphasis on rationality change for state action?
Do economic relations between states play a role in moderating (or not) conflict?
What is the role of the “public” in influencing state action?
Is it necessary to create supra-national institutions to restrain state action?
European Schemes for Peace
Important text: Project for Making Perpetual Peace in Europe (1713) by Abbe de Saint Pierre.
The logical conclusion of Saint Pierre: “confederation of Europe”.
Going back to Emeric Cruce and a project of European unification. Europe: between Roman Empire and State System: Bodin vs. Cruce.
Cont.
Jeremy Bentham “Plan for a Universal and Perpetual Peace” (1794).
Colonialism is a major impediment to free trade:
Colonialism => Mercantilism;
War diverts capital to military, which is unproductive.
Europe without colonies would be more peaceful.
Bentham realized that imperial politics lead to sustained war among European sovereigns => presaged Marxist critiques of Imperialism.
