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Saving Kant from Democratic Peace Theorists
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Saving Kant from the Democratic Peace Theorists
Matthew Schuster
Arizona State University
In this paper I argue that Immanuel Kant’s argument in “Perpetual Peace” is a usefultheory for international relations, global politics, and foreign policy. Despite theusefulness of his argument, I also argue that IR scholars have misread Kant’s argumentand, subsequently, so have those who have tried to apply his theory to foreign policy.There are two sources of this problem. The first is based on a lack of a clear reading ofall that Kant argues in “Perpetual Peace”. Most scholars have taken part of his argumentand relied on that part alone; Kant’s argument, however, is holistic and cannot be taken inparts. The second source of this problem is with those scholars who have tried to takeKant’s theory (and any political theory for that matter) as explaining a world guided bylaw-like regularities. To argue against this, I use Alasdair MacIntyre‘s description of theearly, renaissance, political philosopher who is often credited with first applyingscientific realism to politics, Niccolo Machiavelli. Because of this argument, I am notonly attempting to save Kant from liberal idealists, I want to save Machiavelli fromscientific realists while undercutting scientific realism itself.
Matthew Schuster
Department of Political Science
Arizona State University
## email not listed ##
(763) 689-8596
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| | Authors: Schuster, Matthew. |
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Saving Kant from the Democratic Peace Theorists
Matthew Schuster
Arizona State University
In this paper I argue that Immanuel Kant’s argument in “Perpetual Peace” is a useful
theory for international relations, global politics, and foreign policy. Despite the
usefulness of his argument, I also argue that IR scholars have misread Kant’s argument
and, subsequently, so have those who have tried to apply his theory to foreign policy.
There are two sources of this problem. The first is based on a lack of a clear reading of
all that Kant argues in “Perpetual Peace”. Most scholars have taken part of his argument
and relied on that part alone; Kant’s argument, however, is holistic and cannot be taken in
parts. The second source of this problem is with those scholars who have tried to take
Kant’s theory (and any political theory for that matter) as explaining a world guided by
law-like regularities. To argue against this, I use Alasdair MacIntyre‘s description of the
early, renaissance, political philosopher who is often credited with first applying
scientific realism to politics, Niccolo Machiavelli. Because of this argument, I am not
only attempting to save Kant from liberal idealists, I want to save Machiavelli from
scientific realists while undercutting scientific realism itself.
Matthew Schuster
Department of Political Science
Arizona State University
## email not listed ##
(763) 689-8596
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