Leviathan in search of world order: the international security issue in the works of Hobbes and Kant

The article analyzes the historical and intellectual context of the revival of interest in the modern science to the works of T. Hobbes and I. Kant as the founders of two classical traditions in the International Relations (IR) theory - political realism and idealism. The heuristic value of the International Relations theory they produced is explained by the fact that in their works they embodied the ideal understanding of the world order based on the interaction of sovereign states in the interests of keeping global peace and security. The political theories of Hobbes and Kant reflected the foreign policy realities of the Enlightenment. The experience of the Thirty Years' War in Europe and the English Civil War in the 17th century made Hobbes consider three universal and permanent sources of military conflicts: the competition for resources, need for glory (domination), and fear and distrust to the enemy generating the desire to protect themselves. Kant's Perpetual Peace (1795), written under the French Revolution impression, proposed a republican project of a free federation of peace-loving peoples as a regulatory and institutional foundation of the international order as "a global civil status of public state security". The comparative analysis of the works of the English and German philosophers confirms the common grounds which determined the subsequent development of the theory of IR. The natural law doctrine was the result of the conceptual unity of classical political realism and political idealism. Its ideological value formed a categorical apparatus of the modern IR study: the principle of the sovereign equality of states as the main actors of international communication; the idea of inevitability of anarchy in international relations; the "balance of power" theory; the idea of the universal and conventional nature of international law; the concepts of "security dilemma" and "rational choice", the "zero-sum game" and many others. Research practice of Hobbes and Kant largely determined the nature of the modern world political discourse with its emphasis on the interdependence of states' domestic and foreign policy, the ratio of the moral, legal and regulatory power in international relations, the socio-cultural and psychological motivation of the world process participants, regardless of their status and political nature. The conflict of interpretations of classical International Relations theories in the modern political science resulted in a new understanding of the nature of international security and the means of its provision: cooperation based on trust and mutual willingness to compromise; rational and responsible choice of means and methods of ensuring national and global security; joint construction of legal foundations of the world order to address global issues and counter global threats - this is not a complete list of the characteristics of an ideal regulatory system of international relations, whose origins can be found in the works of Hobbes and Kant, the classics of the International Relations theory.

Keywords

Authors

References