Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T20:58:43.227Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Limits of Kant’s Cosmopolitanism: Theory, Practice, and the Crisis in Syria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2017

Matthew C. Altman
Matthew C. Altman*
Affiliation:
Central Washington University
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although Kant defends a cosmopolitan ideal, his philosophy is problematically vague regarding how to achieve it, which lends support to the empty formalism charge. How Kant would respond to the crisis in Syria reveals that judgement plays too central a role, because Kantian principles lead to equally reasonable but opposite conclusions on how to weigh the duty of hospitality to refugees against a state’s duty to its own citizens, the right of prevention towards ISIS against the duty not to harm non-combatants, and the responsibility to protect the people of Syria against the duty of non-interference in its internal affairs.

Keywords

cosmopolitanismhumanitarian interventionjudgementduty of hospitalityresponsibility to protect (R2P)empty formalism chargeSyriaIraq
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 179 - 204
Copyright
© Kantian Review 2017 

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

Ang, Jennifer Mei Sze (2015) ‘Kant and the Responsibility to Protect’. International Journal of Applied Philosophy, 29, 37–51.Google Scholar
Bagnoli, Carla (2006) ‘Humanitarian Intervention as a Perfect Duty: A Kantian Argument’. In Terry Nardin and Melissa S. Williams (eds), Humanitarian Intervention (New York: New York University Press, 2006), pp. 117–148.Google Scholar
Beauchamp, Zack (2014) ‘Obama’s Getting More Aggressive on ISIS – But It’s Putting More Civilians at Risk’. Vox. www.vox.com/2014/10/1/6880125/civilian-casualties-us-airstrikes-syria-iraq-isis.Google Scholar
Benhabib, Seyla (2004) The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents, and Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Benhabib, Seyla (2006) ‘Another Cosmopolitanism’. In Robert Post (ed.), Another Cosmopolitanism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 13–80.Google Scholar
Bohm, Alexandra (2013) ‘Responding to Crises: The Problematic Relationship between Security and Justice in the Responsibility to Protect’. Global Policy, 4, 247–257.Google Scholar
Brown, Garrett Wallace, and Bohm, Alexandra (2015) ‘Introducing Jus ante Bellum as a Cosmopolitan Approach to Humanitarian Intervention’. European Journal of International Relations. Published electronically 14 Oct.Google Scholar
Cavallar, Georg (1999) Kant and the Theory and Practice of International Right. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Cavallar, Georg (2006) ‘Commentary on Susan Meld Shell’s “Kant on Just War and ‘Unjust Enemies’: Reflections on a ‘Pleonasm’”’. Kantian Review, 11, 117–124.Google Scholar
Crossette, Barbara (1999) ‘U.N. Details Its Failure to Stop ’95 Bosnia Massacre’. New York Times, 16 Nov. www.nytimes.com/1999/11/16/world/un-details-its-failure-to-stop-95-bosnia-massacre.html.Google Scholar
Dower, Nigel (2014) ‘Global Ethics in Theory and in Practice: The Case of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)’. Nordicum-Mediterraneum, 9. nome.unak.is/wordpress/09-2/c64-conference-paper/global-ethics-in-theory-and-in-practice-the-case-of-the-responsibility-to-protect-r2p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, Michael W. (1983) ‘Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs, Part 2’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 12, 323–353.Google Scholar
Economist Intelligence Unit (2016) Democracy Index 2015: Democracy in an Age of Anxiety. www.eiu.com/Handlers/WhitepaperHandler.ashx?fi=EIU-Democracy-Index-2015.pdf&mode=wp&campaignid=DemocracyIndex2015.Google Scholar
Fisher, Max (2013) ‘The Four Reasons Russia Won’t Give Up Syria, No Matter What Obama Does’. Washington Post, 5 Sept. www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/09/05/the-four-reasons-russia-wont-give-up-syria-no-matter-what-obama-does.Google Scholar
Gold, Dore (2004) Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. New York: Crown Forum.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen ([1990] 1994) ‘The Gulf War: Catalyst for a New German Normalcy?’. In Max Pensky (trans. and ed.), The Past as Future (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), pp. 5–32.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen ([1996] 1998) ‘Kant’s Idea of Perpetual Peace: At Two Hundred Years’ Historical Remove’. In Ciaran Cronin and Pablo De Greiff (eds), The Inclusion of the Other: Studies in Political Theory (Cambridge: Polity), pp. 165–202.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen (1999) ‘Bestiality and Humanity: A War on the Border between Legality and Morality’. Constellations, 6, 263–272.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen ([1998] 2001) The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays. Trans. and ed. Max Pensky. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hegel, G. W. F. ([1807] 1977) Phenomenology of Spirit. Trans. A. V. Miller. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jaberg, Sabine (2002) Kants Friedensschrift und die Idee kollektiver Sicherheit: Eine Rechtfertigungsgrundlage für den Kosovo-Krieg der NATO? Hamburger Beiträge zur Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik, 129. Hamburg: Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996a) Practical Philosophy. Trans. and ed. Mary J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996b) Religion and Rational Theology. Ed. Allen W. Wood and George di Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (2007) Anthropology, History, and Education . Ed. Günter Zöller and Robert B. Louden. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kleingeld, Pauline (1998) ‘Kant’s Cosmopolitan Law: World Citizenship for a Global Order’. Kantian Review, 2, 72–90.Google Scholar
Lindstedt, David (1999) ‘Kant: Progress in Universal History as a Postulate of Practical Reason’. Kant-Studien, 90, 129–147.Google Scholar
Marsi, Federica (2015) ‘Syrian Refugees Overwhelm Lebanon to the Breaking Point’. USA Today, 21 Nov. www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/11/19/lebanon-beirut-refugees-syria/73475896.Google Scholar
Mertens, Thomas (2007) ‘Kant’s Cosmopolitan Values and Supreme Emergencies’. Journal of Social Philosophy, 38, 222–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roff, Heather M. (2012) ‘Who is Responsible for Syrian Refugees?’. Huffington Post, 7 Sept. www.huffingtonpost.ca/heather-roff/syria-refugee_b_1850425.html.Google Scholar
Roff, Heather M. (2013) Global Justice, Kant and the Responsibility to Protect: A Provisional Duty. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Roth, Kenneth (2001) ‘Despots Pretending to Spot and Shame Despots’. New York Times, 17 April. www.nytimes.com/2001/04/17/opinion/17iht-edroth_ed2_.html?pagewanted=1.Google Scholar
Scruton, Roger (2004) ‘Immanuel Kant and the Iraq War’. openDemocracy, 19 Feb. www.opendemocracy.net/faith-iraqwarphiloshophy/article_1749.jsp.Google Scholar
Scruton, Roger (2005) ‘National Interest and International Law’. In Thomas Cushman (ed.), A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005), pp. 95–105.Google Scholar
Sengupta, Somini (2015) ‘United Nations’ Reputation Slips as Four-Year War in Syria Drags On’. New York Times, 12 Mar. www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/world/middleeast/aid-agencies-fault-un-security-council-on-syria-conflict.html?_r=0.Google Scholar
Tan, Kok-Chor (1995) ‘Military Intervention as a Moral Duty’. Public Affairs Quarterly, 9, 29–46.Google Scholar
Tan, Kok-Chor (2006) ‘The Duty to Protect’. In Terry Nardin and Melissa S. Williams (eds), Humanitarian Intervention (New York: New York University Press), pp. 84–116.Google Scholar
Tesón, Fernando R. (1988) Humanitarian Intervention: An Inquiry into Law and Morality. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Transnational.Google Scholar
Tesón, Fernando R. (2005) ‘Ending Tyranny in Iraq’. Ethics and International Affairs, 19, 1–20.Google Scholar
The Economist (2013) ‘Editorial: Kant and Syria’s Civil War: Trigger Unhappy’. 27 Aug. www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/08/kant-and-syrias-civil-war.Google Scholar
US House of Representatives, Homeland Security Committee (2015) Syrian Refugee Flows: Security Risks and Counterterrorism Challenges. homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/HomelandSecurityCommittee_Syrian_Refugee_Report.pdf.Google Scholar
Vollmer, Antje (2004a) ‘Immanuel Kant im Irak’. Tagesspiegel, 5 Jan. www.tagesspiegel.de/zeitung/immanuel-kant-im-irak/479094.html.Google Scholar
Vollmer, Antje (2004b) ‘Immanuel Kant and Iraq: A Reply to Roger Scruton’. openDemocracy, 31 Mar. www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-iraqwarphiloshophy/article_1821.jsp.Google Scholar
Welsh, Jennifer, and Banda, Miranda (2010) ‘International Law and the Responsibility to Protect: Clarifying or Expanding States’ Responsibilities?’. Global Responsibility to Protect, 2, 213–231.Google Scholar
Williams, Howard (1983) Kant’s Political Philosophy. New York: St Martin’s.Google Scholar
Williams, Howard (2011) ‘Kantian Perspectives on Intervention: Transcending Rather than Rejecting Hobbes’. In Raia Prokhovnik and Gabriella Slomp (eds), International Political Theory After Hobbes: Analysis, Interpretation and Orientation (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 102–122.Google Scholar
Williams, Howard (2012) Kant and the End of War: A Critique of Just War Theory. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Williams, Howard (2015) Review of Global Justice, Kant and the Responsibility to Protect: A Provisional Duty, by Heather M. Roff. Kantian Review, 20, 166–70.Google Scholar
Yan, Holly (2013) ‘Syria Allies: Why Russia, Iran and China are Standing by the Regime’. CNN, 29 Aug. www.cnn.com/2013/08/29/world/meast/syria-iran-china-russia-supporters.Google Scholar