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The War Over Perpetual Peace: an Exploration Into the History of a Foundational International Relations Text

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The War Over Perpetual Peace: an Exploration Into the History of a Foundational International Relations Text THE WAR OVER PERPETUAL PEACE: AN EXPLORATION INTO THE HISTORY OF A FOUNDATIONAL INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS TEXT Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of. Philosophy in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science Eric Sheridan Easley 2002 UMI Number: U166538 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U166538 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Z°iZZoo ABSTRACT Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace is widely recognized as a foundational International Relations text. My research has uncovered a variety of competing interpretations of the work since its initial publication in the late eighteenth century. This thesis examines English-language commentary on the treatise from the mid­ nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. It demonstrates the existence of two distinct patterns of interpretation. According to my analysis, interpretations from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century assert that the text endorses peace proposals above the state level. This collection of interpretations constitutes Pattern One. Interpretations from the mid-twentieth century to its end, however, maintain that the text is in favor of peace proposals at the state level. This collection of interpretations constitutes Pattern Two. It is argued that the principal explanation for the existence of these patterns resides-in the rise and decline of hopes for peace through international organization. A subsidiary explanation is that the patterns reflect the steady increase in the number of liberal states in the western hemisphere over the past century and one-half. These patterns and their explanations provide a comprehensive historical background and analytical framework for understanding Perpetual Peace which enables academics and students of International Relations to better understand and appreciate its complex meaning and to think beyond the conventionally accepted interpretations of the day. 2 To my Grandfather, Johnson Easley, and my Grandmother, Jane Henry, for their intellectual inspiration and zest for life. What the former passed on to me, the latter continues to in ways she will never understand. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis was fulfilling to write because the following people and places made it so: Dr. Peter Wilson, for his plentiful thoughts, immense generosity and patience in supervision, and during our many productive chats in his office, for making me laugh when I should have been thinking; my parents, Sid and Melissa Easley, who through their selfless devotion to family and community have helped me to understand the beauty of God's grace you will always be the two most important people in my life; my brother Don and sister-in-law Jacqueline, and my Aunt Janet and Uncle Vernon, for their unconditional love and support coupled with constant prodding to finish what I'm sure, at times, they thought would never be; Kamini Karlekar, who I cherish for her challenging intellect, her giving spirit, and her belief in what is a wonderful relationship; Greg Asikainen, one of the greatest constants in my life, for being the most amazing friend a guy could ever have; Charlie Weigle, for his deep companionship and principled faith; Meera Ballal, for setting me free, for teaching me valuable lessons about life, and for her friendship; the Gentlemen of Brown's Mountain, for their genuine commitment to amusing, fraternal banter; the Trust, an international community like no other, for providing me with countless friends for life; the Brewing Society, for being a most perfect diversion from my studies; my favorite Local, the Postmen's Pub, for the fellowship and camaraderie only a good English public house can offer; and finally, all the simple chapels and glorious cathedrals of London, for taking me in and uplifting me when times were good and times were tough. To all of the above, I say thank you. Because of you, the thesis took longer to write than it should. Without you, it would never have been completed. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ................................................ 2 Dedication....................., ......................... 3 Acknowledgments .......................................... 4 Introduction ............................................ 7 Part I Kant's Perpetual Peace: An Introduction to the Text, Interpretations, and Patterns Chapter One - The Textual Hooks of Interpretation . 23 Part II The Articles of Perpetual Peace: Peace Proposals above the State Level Chapter Two - Pattern One, Phase One: Reining in State Sovereignty. Interpretations from the Mid- Nineteenth Century to the End of World War I . 55 Chapter Three - Pattern One, Phase Two: State Sovereignty Curbed. Interpretations from the End of World War I to the Mid-Twentieth C e n t u r y ....................... 82 Part III The Articles of Perpetual Peace: Peace Proposals at the State Level Chapter Four - Pattern Two, Phase One: In Defense of State Sovereignty. Interpretations from the 1950s to the Early 1 9 8 0 s ...........................112 Chapter Five - Pattern Two, Phase Two: State Sovereignty Preserved I. A New Interpretation Takes Shape in the Early 1 9 8 0 s .................................... 171 Chapter Six - Pattern Two, Phase Two: State Sovereignty Preserved II. Into the 1990s, the State-Centric Reading and its Emphasis on the First Definitive Article Solidifies ............................... 207 5 Chapter Seven - Pattern Two, Phase Two: State Sovereignty Preserved III. Accent on the First Definitive Article through the End of the Twentieth Century . 269 Part IV Shifting Hopes, Shifting Patterns Chapter Eight - Pattern Formation as a Function of the Rise and Decline of Hopes for Peace through International Organization.......................... 305 Chapter Nine - From the Turmoil of International Anarchy to the Calm of the Liberal Pe a c e ...................365 E p i l o g u e.................................................396 Bibliography ........................................... 399 6 INTRODUCTION 'THE PERPETUAL PEACE' A Dutch innkeeper once put this satirical inscription on his signboard, along with the picture of a graveyard. We shall not trouble to ask whether it applies to men in general, or particularly to heads of state (who can never have enough of war) , or only to the philosophers who blissfully dream of perpetual peace. The author of the present essay does, however, make one reservation in advance. The practical politician tends to look down with great complacency upon the political theorist as a mere academic. The theorist's abstract ideas, the practitioner believes, cannot endanger the state, since the state must be founded upon principles of experience; it thus seems safe to let him fire off his whole broadside, and the worldly-wise statesman need not turn a hair. It thus follows that if the practical politician is to be consistent, he must not claim, in the event of a dispute with the theorist, to scent any danger to the state in the opinions which the theorist has randomly uttered in public. By this saving clause, the author of this essay will consider himself expressly safeguarded, in correct and proper style, against all malicious interpretation.1 The prelude to Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace, first published in Konigsberg in 1795, is a prophecy. Kant 1Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace in Kant's Political Writings, edited by Hans Reiss, translated by H.B. Nisbet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), p. 93 (emphasis added). Any text quoted from Kant's Perpetual Peace throughout the thesis derives from this translation. When commentators use alternative translations in their interpretation of the treatise, these are noted and any relevant distinctions in language are indicated. 7 predicted that suspicious political leaders would consider the essay a "malicious" tract. He had visions of practical politicians, then or at some later time, holding his new treatise responsible for endangering the state. By including these clever opening lines, he believed he was successfully guarding against this possibility.2 Little was his concern that the very theorists he was trying to protect might argue endlessly over what he proposed in Perpetual Peace through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This, in fact, is exactly what they have done. Their commentary on Kant's text is the source of this thesis. As a Master of Science student at the London School of Economics and Political Science researching Kant's contribution to international political theory, I became intrigued with the number of competing interpretations of Perpetual Peace I found over the years. Observing that similar interpretations of the work were situated in relatively well-defined periods of history, it occurred to me that further research might reveal distinct patterns of Apparently, Kant's Prelude was not clever enough. The publication of Perpetual Peace immediately "won him the reproach of being a Jacobin (1795)." A.C.F.
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