Kant and Liberal Internationalism

The spread of democracy has brought renewed and sustained attention to Immanuel Kant's philosophy of international relations. This examination of Kant's writings shows him to be both a conservative partisan of the international status quo of sovereign states and yet also the inspiration for radical, global reform for democracy and universal rights. Focusing on the signal importance of Kant's concept of justice both for his own project to reform international politics or the larger liberal internationalist tradition, this title places his philosophic legacy in a highly significant context: the contemporary evolution of liberal internationalism. This connects the Kantian legacy to the post Cold War policy agenda and the moral dilemmas that currently confront political leaders and the societies they represent, both national societies and global society as a whole. Finally, this book explains why it is that liberals will disagree on how best to reform global politics and why this disagreement will continue to draw on Kant's historically controversial legacy. Franceschet forces a reconsideration of Kant and a broadening of concern from democratic peace to cosmopolitan justice.