Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T08:31:28.116Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Kant, Intervention and the ‘Failed State’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2011

Georg Cavallar  and
August Reinisch
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Nowadays Kant's practical philosophy (including his political philosophy) is as highly regarded as his theoretical philosophy. This is an important development since the more constructive side of Kant's philosophy is to be found in his moral and political works. The main task of the Critique of Pure Reason is to clarify its concepts and to get rid of basic errors, and thus only ‘negative’. The moral and political writings, on the other hand, try to expand the scope of reason ‘for practical purposes’ (‘in praktischer Absicht’). Establishing principles of moral and political conduct, their main objective is not negative, but constructive.

Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 2 , March 1998 , pp. 91 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © Kantian Review 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

We are grateful to Professor Howard Williams, University of Wales, for helpful suggestions and criticism.

1 Cf. Sullivan, Roger J., An Introduction to Kant's Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Neill, Onora, Constructions of Reason. Explorations of Kant's Practical Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Prauss, Gerold, Kant über Freiheit als Autonomie (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Cf. B25; KGS (see n. 3) 3: 43.

3 We have used the following edition for Kant's, works: Political Writings, ed. Reiss, Hans, tr. H. B. Nisbet, 2nd, enlarged edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1991).Google Scholar The page number of the English translation follows the volume and page numbers of the Akademie edition: Kants Gesammelte Schriften (KGS), ed. Prussian, (later German) Academy of Science (Berlin, Leipzig: de Gruyter, 1900ff.).Google Scholar Occasionally we have changed the translation to ensure the consistency of the central terms. KGS 5: 134–41; Reiss, p. 114; 8: 368; 18f.

4 Boutros-Ghali, Boutros, ‘Concluding Statement by the Secretary-General of the United Nations at the United Nations Congress on Public International Law’, New York 1995, p. 9Google Scholar, quoted in: Thürer, Daniel, ‘Der Wegfell effektiver Staatsgewalt: “The Failed State”’, Berichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerrecht, 34 (Heidelberg: C. F. Müller Verlag, 1995), 9.Google Scholar

5 Kimminich, Otto, ‘Der Mythos der humanitären Intervention’, Archiv des Völkerrechts, 33 (1995), 433Google Scholar; Roberts, Adam, ‘Humanitarian war: military intervention and human rights’, International Affairs, 69 (1993), 445.Google Scholar

6 Greenwood, Christopher, ‘Is there a right of humanitarian intervention’, The World Today, 49 (1993), 40.Google Scholar

7 Herdegen, Matthias, ‘Der Wegfall effektiver Staatsgewalt: “The Failed State’’, Berichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerrecht, 34 (1995), 60.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 65, relying on a quote from Perpetual Peace; cf. KGS 8: 346; Reiss, p. 96.

9 E.g. Gerhardt, Volker, Immanuel Kants Entwurf ‘Zum ewigen Frieden’: eine Theorie der Politik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1995)Google Scholar; Höffe, Otfried, Immanuel Kant: Zum ewigen Frieden. Klassiker Auslegen, 1 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1995)Google Scholar; Proceedings of the Eighth International Kant Congress, ed. Hoke Robinson (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1995); Merkel, Reinhard and Wittmann, Roland (eds.), ‘Zum ewigen Frieden’. Grundlagen, Aktualität und Aussichten einer Idee von Immanuel Kant (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1996)Google Scholar; Beutin, Wolfgang (ed.), Homage à Kant: Kants Schrift ‘Zum ewigen Frieden’ (Hamburg: Bockel, 1996)Google Scholar; Lutz-Bachmann, Matthias and Bohman, James (eds.), Frieden durch Recht. Kants Friedensidee und das Problem einer neuen Weltordnung (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1996).Google Scholar

10 Williams, Howard and Booth, Ken, ‘Kant: theorist beyond limits’, in Clark, Ian and Neumann, Iver B. (eds.), Classical Theories of International Relations (Houndmills: Macmillan Press, 1996), p. 73.Google Scholar

11 Brown, Chris, International Relations Theory (London: Harvester, 1992), p. 50Google Scholar; Williams, and Booth, ‘Kant’, p. 95.Google Scholar

12 Saner, Hans, ‘Die negativen Bedingungen des Friedens’, in Höffe, Kant, pp. 43–67Google Scholar; Linden, Harry Van der, ‘Kant: the duty to promote international peace and political intervention’, in Proceedings, ed. Robinson, , vol.2, pp. 1, 71–9.Google Scholar

13 KGS 8: 346; Reiss, p. 96.

14 Wieland, Christoph Martin, Politische Schriften, insbesondere zur Französischen Revolution, ed. Reemtsma, J. P. and Radspieler, H. and Radspieler, J. (Nördlinger, 1988), p. 309Google Scholar; cf. Saner, in Höffe, , Kant, p. 57Google Scholar; Cavallar, Georg, Pax Kantiana. Systematische-historische Untersuchung des Entwurfs ‘Zum ewigen Frieden’ (1795) von Immanuel Kant (Vienna, Cologne, Weimar: Böhlau-Verlag, 1992), pp. 124–8Google Scholar; Gerhardt, , Theorie der Politik, 62.Google Scholar

15 KGS 8: 346, 11–13; Reiss, p. 96.

16 Saner in Höffe, , Kant, p. 58.Google Scholar

17 KGS 6: 346, 15; Reiss, p. 167.

18 Ibid.; cf. Georg Cavallar, ‘Conflicts in Kant's account of the right to go to war’, in The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms (forthcoming), and Verosta, Stephan, ‘Krieg und Angriffskrieg im Denken Kants’, Osterreichische Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, 31 (1980), 247–64.Google Scholar

19 KGS 6: 346; Reiss, p. 167.

20 KGS 6: 344; Reiss, p. 165.

21 Cf. Byrd, Sharon, ‘The State as a “Moral Person”‘, in Proceedings, ed. Robinson, , vol.1, pp. 171–89.Google Scholar

22 Cf. KGS 8: 344, 19; Reiss, p. 94.

23 Cf. KGS 8: 346, 23–5; Reiss, p. 96.

24 See below; cf. Byrd, , in Proceedings, pp. 171 and 176.Google Scholar

25 Cf. KGS 6: 256; Byrd, , in Proceedings, p. 176f.Google Scholar

26 Cf. KGS 8: 347f.; Reiss, p. 97; Reinhard Brandt, ‘Das Problem der Erlaubnisgesetze im Spätwerk Kants’, in Höffe, , Kant, pp. 69–86Google Scholar; Williams, Howard, International Relations in Political Theory (Milton Keynes and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1992), p. 85Google Scholar; Cavallar, , Pax Kantiana, pp. 101–3.Google Scholar

27 KGS 8: 346,22; Reiss, p. 96.

28 Byrd, , in Proceedings, p. 182.Google Scholar

29 KGS 6: 223 and 227; Byrd, , in Proceedings, pp. 172Google Scholar and 182; cf. Friedrich Kambartel, ‘Kants Entwurf und das Prinzip der Nichteinmischung in die inneren Staatsangelegenheiten. Grundsätzliches zur Politik der Vereinten Nationen’, in Lutz-Bachmann and Bohman, James, Frieden, pp. 240–50Google Scholar, 240, and Nenon, Thomas, ‘Freedom, responsibility, character: some reflections on Kant's notion of the person’, in Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethikl Annual Review of Law and Ethics, 1 (1993), 158–68.Google Scholar

30 The terms ‘principle of justice’ and ‘principle (or concept) of rights’ are synonymous, and are a translation of Rechtsgesetz. Cf. Mulholland, Leslie Arthur, Kant's System of Rights (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), pp. 5–10.Google Scholar

31 KGS 6: 314, 9–11; Reiss, p. 139.

32 Cf. KGS 6: 209, 10f.

33 KGS 8: 344, 32f.; Reiss, p. 94; cf. Byrd, , Proceedings, p. 176.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., pp. 175, 185; Gau-Jeng, Ju, Kants Lehre vom Menschenrecht und von den staatsbürgerlichen Grundrechten (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1990), pp. 124–31.Google Scholar

35 Geismann, Georg, ‘Kants Rechtslehre vom Weltfrieden’, Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung, 37 (1983), 363–88Google Scholar, 379–80; Cavallar, , ‘Kant's society of nations: free federation or world republic?’, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 32 (1994), 461–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 KGS 8: 355, 36–356, 1; Reiss, p. 104.

37 KGS 7: 85,31–3; Reiss, p. 182.

38 Linden, Van der, in Proceedings, p. 75.Google Scholar

39 Sidney Axinn, Comments on Harry van der Linden, ibid., vol.1, pp. 3, 1381–4, 1381.

40 Beigbeder, Yves, The Role and Status of International Humanitarian Volunteers and Organizations. The Right and Duty to Humanitarian Assistance (Dordrecht, Boston, London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1991), pp. 380–3;Google ScholarSchermers, Henry G., ‘The obligation to intervene in the domestic affairs of states’, in Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflict — Challenges Ahead. Essays in Honour of Frits Kalshoven (Dordrecht, Boston, London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1991), pp. 583–93Google Scholar, 592.

41 Williams, Howard, Kant's Political Philosophy (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983), p. 247.Google Scholar

42 KGS 6: 353; Reiss, p. 173.

43 KGS 8: 377; Reiss, p. 122.

44 Linden, Van der, in Proceedings, p. 71.Google Scholar

45 Axinn, ibid., p. 1382.

46 KGS 6: 323; Reiss, p. 47.

47 ‘das gehört zum Völkerrecht’ : KGS 6: 323, 20.

48 Brunkhorst, Hauke, ‘Paradigmenwechsel im Völkerrecht? Lehren aus Bosnien’, in Lutz-Bachmann and Bohman, Frieden, pp. 251–71Google Scholar, 262f. 49 Cf. KGS 6: 274, 8–10.

50 KGS 8: 344,18–19; Reiss, p. 94.

51 Michael Reisman, W., ‘Sovereignty and human rights in contemporary international law’, in American Journal of International Law, 84 (1990), 866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52 KGS 8: 346; Reiss, p. 96.

53 Cf. Theorie der Politik, p. 64.

54 Linden, Van der, in Proceedings, p. 71.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., p. 74; Kambartel, , ‘Kants Entwurf’, pp. 242f.Google Scholar

56 KGS 23: 166, 14f.

57 Kersting, Wolfgang, ‘Kant's concept of the state’, in Williams, Howard, Essays on Kant's Political Philosophy (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), p. 161.Google Scholar

58 Mulholland, , Kant's System, pp. 343–6Google Scholar, 385. 59 KGS 6: 349; Reiss, p. 170.

60 Byrd, , in Proceedings, p. 176.Google Scholar

61 KGS 6: 349; Reiss, p. 170.

62 KGS 8: 352, 31; Reiss, p. 101.

63 Cf. Cavallar, Georg, ‘Kant's judgment on Frederick's enlightened absolutism’, History of Political Thought, 14 (1993), 103–32.Google Scholar

64 KGS 6: 346; Reiss, p. 167.

65 Freudenschuβ, Helmut, ‘Article 39 of the UN Charter revisited: threats to the peace and the recent practice of the UN Security Council’, Austrian Journal of Public and International Law, 46 (1993), 36Google Scholar; Roberts 1993: 436ff.