session 23: Perpetual Peace, an Idealistic perspective

                Immanuel Kant was a German Philosopher who focused on how the structural development of human minds. For that he considers the role of human experience an important factor. The concept of perpetual peace proposed by Immanuel Kant is an attempt to define a peace state of world. His views are somewhat aligned with the Democratic Peace theory in a way that both talk theory talk about the idea that democratic states are more peaceful. Kant admires republican states in which executives of states should be separated from legislature. His point here is human being learns from their experience and they have seen the consequences of war in the past. This makes humans less prone to war and hence executives of republican states act accordingly.

             Among his proposed key principles on which states should comply, I found one very infeasible. I found his claim “Standing armies shall be abolished in course of time” very idealistic. Realist’s critic to this idea that it is an overestimation of morality embedded in human nature because true intensions of states are can never be so visible and hence this is a difficult choice to make for states. Furthermore, I believe there is an assumption in Kant’s theory of perpetual peace that all states should conform all key principles of his theory, only in that case his claim could be effective, which is after all not possible. Today we are living in a world where warfare is evolved as an irresistible concept. If we could go back to the world which had not experienced great wars, then the adaptation of Kant’s theory could arguably possible. I am sure, if Kant’s ideas would be different if he had opportunity to experience contemporary norms and issues in international politics.