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Kant's Perpetual Peace

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The field of international relations has largely developed over the years to have multiple different theories for how issues like diplomacy play out in the real world. The ways in which people believe problems in the international community should be solved have diversified into various schools of thought. These schools span the political spectrum from a Marxist view of the world to an Anarchist perspective. Though two of the arguably most prominent schools of thought would be the Realist and the Liberalist. The realist point of view takes on a frank examination of the world, believing that countries act in their own self interest and that power is often the most sought after end. On the contrary. the Liberalist school of thought holds a more …show more content…
Kant’s work Perpetual Peace largely focused on the steps and conditions in which the world could have an everlasting peace rather than repeated “periods” of peace. One of Kant’s central beliefs was that a federation of states would greatly impede the possibility of war. A federation, he claimed would “not aim at the gain of any power whatsoever of the state, but merely at the preservation and security of the freedom of the state for itself and of other allied states at the same time” (Kant 134). Kant also insisted that these states should for the most part be made up of republics as it would lead to greater prosperity. “For, if Fortune ordains that a powerful and enlightened people should form a republic—which by its very nature is inclined to perpetual peace—this would…secure conditions of freedom among states” (Kant 134-135). Kant was very insistent on certain requirements being met in order for a perpetual peace to come to fruition, one of these being a group of republics. Though this republics were not just stagnant entities, Kant believed that the interaction between these states in social and economic terms would lead to a strong …show more content…
“The commercial spirit cannot co-exist with war, and sooner or later it takes possession of every nation” (157). The spread of trade of wealth is to Kant appears to be unavoidable. To make an overly generalized claim about today’s world, commerce is growing but war isn’t stopping.While economists around the globe seem to hail the progression of the world economy and the increased globalization of the world, their pleasure is misplaced. From a purely economic standpoint, the world today is growing and growing fast and the amount of global commerce is growing. The problem with Kant’s argument largely lies in the fact that it does not foresee future problems that can arise with the increased amount of trade such as through increased globalization. It can likely be assumed that Kant is arguing for free trade. Though again, realistically that does not occur at all in the world. Globalization has in large part caused many reactionary economic policies to spring up in other countries such as tariffs or other special regulatory taxes (Mourdoukoutas). This is because despite international commerce growing, countries are still very much concerned with their own people’s development and sustainability (Gregory). A commonly used example is a the tariff on imported wines that is utilized in the United States to help protect domestic vineyards from competing prices in the international market. However, to avoid

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