Session 23- It's always about war

Immanuel Kant in his work titled ‘Perpetual Peace’ puts forth the idea of the democratic peace theory. This theory essentially states that democratic governments are reluctant to engage into wars. This is because since real democracies a reflection of the public’s voices, then they are not likely to engage in armed conflict because the public of a nation does not want to go to war. Moreover, even if they do engage in a conflict then they have to accept the blame for the destruction and losses which tarnishes their reputation and makes them unpopular. Furthermore, in a true democracy statesmen are accountable to the voters hence it is expected of them to resolve a dispute in a diplomatic manner rather than using force and indulging in armed conflicts. Lastly, it is also believed that democratic states have a stronger developed economy which would be destroyed because of war. Therefore, in order to engage in trade, preserve their own wealth and infrastructure democracies tend to stay away from wars.  Hence Kant was of the view that if all nations were republics wars could be prevented because there would be no aggressors.

However, Kant's theory constructs binaries. He presents only two options in terms of either a state can be a democracy or not. He does not take into account that there can be other forms of rule as well. Moreover, his theory sounds optimistic, but the actual practicality of his theory cannot be judged for sure because democracies in their true form don’t exist. There is always an element or two that makes the system undemocratic. For example, we like to believe that our system is democratic. However, this is merely an illusion because we do not even get to directly choose the leaders in power.

Nonetheless, Kant does provide us with a useful alternative perspective through which we can view the international system. It also poses a challenge to Realism as Realism rests on the believe that war is inevitable due to the selfish nature of human beings. However, Kant suggests that under certain circumstances war can be avoided.