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Kantian Theory, Nuclear Weapons, and Coercive Anti-Proliferation
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- Authors
- Issue Date
- 2013-11
- Citation
- Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, Vol.1 No.2, pp. 139-155
- Keywords
- Kant ; nuclear weapons ; proliferation ; coercion ; justice ; cosmopolitanism
- Abstract
- This article examines the issue of coercively preventing states from acquiring and possessing nuclear weapons. In questioning whether such coercion is morally legitimate, I argue that Immanuel Kants (1724-1804) political theory contains important resources compared with three rival perspectives: Realpolitik, the Just War Tradition, and Deontological Pacifism. I also argue that coercive anti-proliferation measures are conditionally legitimated by three distinctive Kantian concepts: First, his concept of International Justice allows for coercion against genuinely aggressive states engaged in nuclear aspiration. Second, given the imperfections of international justice institutions, his concept of a State of Peoples—an authorized global governance body—seems to provide a better guarantee of just forms of coercive nuclear anti-proliferation. Third, supplementing the first two concepts, Kant discusses a Cosmopolitan Right to share the earths surface. This concept justifies coercive anti-proliferation when a peoples right to existence as citizens of the earth is threatened by nuclear weapons.
- ISSN
- 2288-2693 (print)
2288-2707 (online)
- Language
- English
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