Why Kant’s utopia of perpetual peace failed

Author: Jacques MYARD

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Abstract

In 1795, Immanuel Kant discovered a painting of a cemetery in a Dutch inn with the inscription “To Eternal Peace.” This painting, adorned with a definitive quote, prompted the German philosopher to reflect on a philosophical essay to build, to construct perpetual peace for humanity. In about a hundred pages, Immanuel Kant sets out some principles for establishing perpetual peace. More than two centuries after Kant’s essay, we know that there is no perpetual peace. Even worse, the state of the world is rather “perpetual war.” Why is perpetual peace a utopia?

Keywords: Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace, Perpetual War, Utopia, International Relations, Antiquity, Colonizations, World Wars, Ukraine, United States of America, Middle East, Near East, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Diplomacy, Unilateralism