In “To Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch,” Immanuel Kant discusses his view on the desired peace that is needed by the change on the current form of international politics. Kant’s perspective is that international politics is better off with change because people are by nature meant to change. Without change in politics, peace can only be achieved by war between humans. In the Anarchical Society by Hedley Bull, he claims that the current form of international politics need to remain the way it is. Bull’s idea states that international politics is needed because it protects the sovereignty of a state. The main discussions that arise from Kant and Bull are the Balance of Power, the rights of nations, international order based off life, …show more content…
Kant believes that the Status Quo is good, once you have peace. In order to maintain peace there has to be an agreement to the status quo which will then lead to perpetual peace. He believes in non-intervention: don’t mess with other countries. A state cannot expand it’s territory for any reason. The Status Quo must be accepted by all. Kant believes in two ends of humanity; either universal peace or universal war. He states that in a progressive view of history, this is the natural progression of the countries. This would not have been originally possible without war, and now that humans and states have been established everywhere we don’t need war. Eventually, we are going to achieve universal peace, that is if we don’t kill each other trying. Kant’s preliminary articles outline what should not be done. First, treaties and intent of war need to be eliminated because we need permanent peace. Any inclination of war must be removed. Second, no nation can be acquired. This is the respect of sovereignty and the current balance of power, the Status Quo is permanent. “No independent states, large or small, shall come under the dominion of another state by inheritance, exchange, purchase, or donation.” Third, standing armies are prohibited. However, the National Guard is acceptable as long as they maintain normal lives during times of peace. And fourth, no interference of any kind, and non intervention of the …show more content…
Private property has the idea of justice, sovereignty is similar in the fact that they have rights that other states can’t interfere in government or their way of life. We have the principal of territorial states; we know what belongs to whom. This is the limitation of balance. Bull also believes that World Order is how we conceive each other. International order assumes the existence of states. The Balance of Power allows small states to limit big powers. Therefore, there is not a preponderance of power, because every state still maintains their own laws and foreign policy. “The problem of maintaining a balance of power is not merely ensuring that a military balance exists, it is also a problem of ensuring that there exists belief in it.” (Bull 99) Similarly, the social element is expressed when we have wars to enforce international law (especially to enforce third party rights), or to preserve the balance of power: here again, the claim is that we have cases in which states act as agents for the order itself. Bull believes that there are three functions of the Balance of Power:
“The existence of a general balance of power throughout the international system as a whole has served to prevent the system from being transformed by conquest into a universal empire.”
“The existence of local balances of power has served to protect the independence of states in particular areas from absorption or domination by a local preponderant
In Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition, author Jack Snyder seeks to explain why overexpansion has been so common among the great powers. Sometimes, Snyder argues, states over-expand so aggressively that their actions risk the survival of the states themselves, as was the case of Germany and Japan in the World War II era. Snyder explains that the ‘central myth of empire,’ which he considers ‘defensive realism,’ is that states think that their security can only be safeguarded through further expansion. Snyder explains that this myth of empire is the counterproductive aggressive foreign policy that was the major force that propelled
The defining characteristic of the state is the ability to wield power. The use of power, both inside and outside of one’s border, directly speaks to the sovereignty of the nation. If a nation is incapable of disciplining or punishing its citizens it will invariably become a failed state. Moreover if a country isn’t recognized as powerful in the global political arena, that country stands a very good chance of being dominated by a nation who has the capacity to enforce its own will. The use, or at least the perception, of power is so fundamental in nationhood that those who wield the most power can easily dictate world events.
The international system is anarchic. It is very important to notice that anarchy, according to Mearsheimer, does not mean chaos or disorder, but absence of centralized authority, that stands above states and protects
Liberals believe the causes of war are miscommunication, mistrust, and misperceptions. As a solution, Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, believed that to overcome international anarchy and achieve perpetual peace, there needed to be collective action (interdependency between states), and a federation of states in which state sovereignty will be left intact (international organizations). However, for this to occur, states must have a democratic government. This later became known as the Kantian Triangle.
I agree with the quote that “Wars between states can be explained by the distribution of power and capabilities in the international system.” Power distribution among all the great powers plays an important role for the stability and economy of the state. I believe that war determines who will govern the international system, and whose interests will be primarily served by the new international order.
Ikenberry argues that there are many dilemmas within the organization of the international world order. The liberal order is defined by its openness and its rule based order. Order is maintained in these institutions when states agree to follow the rules set by these institutions. The liberal order has sought to establish its rules in a non-biased system that will not discriminate other states, so that the entire institution can agree on these regulations. However, this has raised many serious dilemmas’. There seems to be concern of how the balance of power operates. Ikenberry argues that the international order has been put into place
In the international arena, there is no hierarchical rule to keep states in line or behaved; meaning that the international system is constantly in anarchy, aka the state of nature. This lack of rule enforcement puts states in a constant state of war, in a constant state where they need to stay on guard and in a tactical advantage otherwise the safety and well being of their state will be in jeopardy. In this scenario, the state’s number one priority is to protect itself and act in its self interest when need be, despite if it would typically be deemed immoral. (Donnelly 20)
The most prevalent reasons for states going to war are security, interest, standing, and revenge; of these, I posit that security is the most frequent. For the purposes of this paper, I will focus on warfare occurring since the onset of the 20th century, however many of the core arguments retain efficacy through the countless centuries of human warfare. States don’t trust one another; even the best relationships between states are mired in spycraft with, or in opposition to one another. To summarize Waltz, drive for security is something that all states want, and need, as long as there are multiple states and at least one of them is looking for power.
In his 1988 Republican National Convention acceptance speech former U.S. President George H.W. Bush proclaimed that, “Weakness and ambivalence lead to war.”. For better or worse a state's ability to influence world politics is primarily based on much power they have. In purely academic terms, power is the ability of Actor A to get Actor B to do something that B would otherwise not do; the ability to get the other side to make concessions and to avoid having to make concessions oneself (Frieden P. A-6). Power is usually represented by the capability of a state to preserve or tip the balance of power towards their own national interests. Balance of power refers to a situation in which the military capabilities of two states or groups of
In a realist world, states have “supreme power” over its territory and population, there is an absence of a higher authority. The fact that there is no higher authority has its consequences. States become self-interested, they compete for power and security. It can lead states to continuously struggle for power “where the strong dominate the weak (Kegley, 28).” This ultimately creates a system in which each state is responsible for its own survival, making them cautious towards their neighboring states. In addition, a realist world is a self-help system; “political leaders seek to enhance national security” by building armies and forming alliances (Kegley, 28). Economic and military power are key components to a state sovereignty and to national security.
The purpose of this essay is to inform on the similarities and differences between systemic and domestic causes of war. According to World Politics by Jeffry Frieden, David Lake, and Kenneth Schultz, systemic causes deal with states that are unitary actors and their interactions with one another. It can deal with a state’s position within international organizations and also their relationships with other states. In contract, domestic causes of war pertain specifically to what goes on internally and factors within a state that may lead to war. Wars that occur between two or more states due to systemic and domestic causes are referred to as interstate wars.
World War I saw the nations involved rallied into two major alliances in order to curb German’s increasing power. It is evident that German amassing too much power poses a threat to the security of its counterparts in an anarchic system. As a result, other countries were willing to use various means not only to mitigate the risks but also maintain their independence in the world’s political structure. The balance of power theory focuses on how countries can achieve a balance and international order. The causes of World War one can be attributed to the balance of power mechanisms used by the countries involved.
Morganthau (Cited in Haas,1953, pp.445) argues that the Balance of power can be viewed as either a description of any state of international politics in relation to power distribution or a policy or action intending to distribute power. From this framework we can use the balance of power to both understand static moments in history to observe where power lies at that moment in time and to look at how states themselves actively implement foreign policy for their own power related interests whether that be looking to balance the set of scales or to tip them
International change takes place when great powers rise and fall and followed by the shift in the balance of power (Jackson and Sorensen, 2003).
seen in history that it is possible to restrain the players. It is said to be