Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace essay acts like a peace treaty between the different states of the world. While reading the articles of this essay it was baffling to see how some of the clauses that were put forward were very far fetched and impossible to reach considering the suspicion and hostility which exists in the global arena. This reading ties in with Levy's understanding of war and peace where complete peace is not possible because of human nature and power politics.
However, even though some of the premises are too liberal to be executed properly, one part which helps explain democracy today and is the inspiration behind the American Constitution. Perhaps one of the most important aspect put forward by him is the fact that there should be a separation of powers between the executive and the legislature. This is important because of if one branch of the government has a lot of power, a democracy, which is seen as the best form of government, erodes and transformed into more autocratic rule. This is why democracies such as America have a three-part division and this leads to security that the government is not suppressing the people or not providing them what is promised.
Another interesting aspect of the peace treaty is that democracies would not want to go to war with each other because they feel that war, even for the victor, is not a very feasible act and in the long run not economically beneficial. They will instead use different tactics such as negotiations to come to some sort of agreement. An additional dimension that was interesting was how the citizens play a very important part whether a war should happen or not. When a country is in the decision making period of whether to go to war, it needs to get the acceptance of the citizens. In the Korean War of 1950, the citizens as well as the Congress needed to be convinced to go to war. Only when the communist threat was very prominent did the congress agree. Another example where war was told to stop was the Vietnam War where the citizens after being shown the atrocities of Agent Orange and the physical and psychological damage to the Vietnamese, they had rallies and protests to stop the war.
Kant's work is popularized and immortalized in the American constitution and is the basis of democracies today. Though some ideas put forward are not feasible in today's world, the basic premises stand true even today.
However, even though some of the premises are too liberal to be executed properly, one part which helps explain democracy today and is the inspiration behind the American Constitution. Perhaps one of the most important aspect put forward by him is the fact that there should be a separation of powers between the executive and the legislature. This is important because of if one branch of the government has a lot of power, a democracy, which is seen as the best form of government, erodes and transformed into more autocratic rule. This is why democracies such as America have a three-part division and this leads to security that the government is not suppressing the people or not providing them what is promised.
Another interesting aspect of the peace treaty is that democracies would not want to go to war with each other because they feel that war, even for the victor, is not a very feasible act and in the long run not economically beneficial. They will instead use different tactics such as negotiations to come to some sort of agreement. An additional dimension that was interesting was how the citizens play a very important part whether a war should happen or not. When a country is in the decision making period of whether to go to war, it needs to get the acceptance of the citizens. In the Korean War of 1950, the citizens as well as the Congress needed to be convinced to go to war. Only when the communist threat was very prominent did the congress agree. Another example where war was told to stop was the Vietnam War where the citizens after being shown the atrocities of Agent Orange and the physical and psychological damage to the Vietnamese, they had rallies and protests to stop the war.
Kant's work is popularized and immortalized in the American constitution and is the basis of democracies today. Though some ideas put forward are not feasible in today's world, the basic premises stand true even today.
Decent post, though your causal logic on the protests against Vietnam is a bit skewed. The American people got fed up with the war because of dead American soldiers and the draft. Typically the American public is much more tolerant of the deaths of foreigners as long as there is no cost in American lives.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Kant wrote is piece in 1795, while the US constitution was adopted in 1789. Hence the principles laid out in the constitution could have influenced Kant, not the other way around.