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Kant and Schmitt on Preemptive War

Politics Beyond War: Immanuel Kant

In Public Law, which relies heavily on his book Perpetual Peace, Kant deals with the "state of nature," in which states confront each other "in conditions of natural freedom," i.e., "perpetual war."² The "state of nature" is "a state of war... even if it does not always entail an outbreak of hostilities, but only the constant threat thereof."³ In order to avoid mutual destruction, states "force each other to overcome this state of war,"⁴ and to establish a common law among states (jus publicum civitatum)."⁵

Kant presupposes the bellum omnium contra omnes,⁶ where states are...