Kant and the Perpetual Peace: An Introduction
The appearance of certain empirical evidence in the last two decades of the 20th century, proposed to a number of political theorists and international relations scholars that speculative ideas advanced by Immanuel Kant (1795) were coming to realization two hundred years after he wrote Toward Perpetual Peace. A major conclusion related with the oft-noted Kantian revival has been the "democratic peace" thesis, "the 'law' that democracies do not fight each other" (Franceschet, 2000). Another theoretical position, "cosmopolitan democracy," also found inspiration in Kant's writings and helped to produce comprehensive models of a future world of peace, democracy, equality, and justice (Held, 1995; Linklater, 1998). Antonid Framceschet (2000) noted of these two formulations: "In both research programs the concept of democracy is central." Andrew Hurrell (1990), in evaluating Kant's "paradigm in international relations," states that there is no single Kantian solution to the international problem. Kant's writing on the subject is characterized by a hesitant and investigative approach and he is keenly aware that all solutions involve trade-offs and costs.
Kant recognized a challenge that went to the very foundations of his philosophical work. He thought that social life under a rule of law was a precondition for the success of rational and moral capabilities and the achievement of maximum individual autonomy and freedom. The materialization of sovereign territorial states provided governance under the rule of law. Paradoxically, on the other hand, a large part of the resulting increase in material powers was being used not to raise social life but, instead, to support ever-more powerful military forces and, all to often, to start wars of barbaric devastation that were terribly opposing to civilized ideals. It was obvious that the potential for a progressive social life inherent in the territorial state model was rigorously........
