Structure of Perpetual Peace: On Perpetual Peace in Rousseau, Bentham and Kant's International Political Thought

This thesis is a study of international perpetual peace. I focus on Rousseau, Bentham and Kant’s international political thought and attempt to present readers with development of an idea “perpetual peace.” I also regard their analysis of causes of war and peace as an inspiration for reform to contemporary international politics. By doing so, I intend to elaborate three points. First, there is a traditional understanding of the idea of perpetual peace. Therefore, it seems necessary to scrutiny and improve Doyle’s Democratic Peace theory according to this tradition. Secondly, although Rousseau, Bentham and Kant respectively analyze causes of war from different perspectives, it seems they all come to the same point: International politics is multilevel-structured. In this sense, they believe that the only way to fulfil peace is to conduct a multileveled reform. Finally, similarities of causes between past wars and contemporary armed conflicts, to some extent, make past reflections on wars worth reviewing, in that prior discussions inspire us to think about the reason why wars die hard, and to search for possible, lasting and effective solutions.