At a time when wars were still regarded as legitimate means of politics, Kant outlined a comprehensive concept of peace. The treatise Perpetual Peace ranks among his most widely read works today; it later influenced organizations such as the UN and the EU.
For Kant, human beings are not peaceful by nature – mere philanthropy is not sufficient. Peace must be “established”; only law and legislation can secure it. Thus, the treatise itself is structured like a peace treaty: it consists of six preliminary articles and three main articles. For a lasting peace, all conditions named therein must be fulfilled. This is no utopia, for according to Kant we may reasonably hope that we gradually approach perpetual peace.
First Main Article
REPUBLIC
“The civil constitution in each state shall be republican.”
For Kant, peace begins already within the state, not merely between states. According to Kant, “republics,” that is, states in which citizens participate in decision-making, are more peaceful than authoritarian states. For when citizens can decide about war and peace, they will be more inclined to avoid war, since they themselves bear its consequences.
In fact, democracies hardly ever wage war against one another. Whether they are truly more peaceful in their dealings with non-democratic states, however, is much debated today.
Second Main Article
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
“The law of nations shall be founded on a federation of free states.”
Wars, according to Kant, can only be prevented through a legal order among states. Therefore, a “league of nations” is needed – a loose alliance of sovereign states (“federation”).
Its primary purpose is to secure the peace and freedom of all states. A world state, however, Kant rejected: states and citizens would then have to submit to a world government and would lose their independence. These ideas are present today in discussions about the UN and the EU.
Third Main Article
COSMOPOLITAN LAW
“Cosmopolitan law shall be limited to conditions of universal hospitality [right of visitation].”
With cosmopolitan law, Kant introduced a new level of law for the first time: every human being has a claim to protection, everywhere on earth. For him this did not mean a right to permanent residence, but only to an unthreatened visit.
Kant condemned the unlawful occupation by European colonial powers. He hoped that a “spirit of commerce”, i.e. economic exchange among peoples, would promote peace. Whether his approach can be applied to today’s asylum law is currently under discussion.