Zum Ewigen Frieden: Ein Philosophischer Entwurf

The most audacious philosophical bet in history: that humanity might actually stop killing itself. Written in 1795 during the Revolutionary Wars, Kant's slender treatise asks not how to end a particular war, but how to construct a peace that lasts forever. He distinguishes sharply between a mere truce and genuine perpetual peace. The preliminary articles demand that nations renounce secret war preparations, forbid territorial acquisition by force, and disband standing armies. But Kant knows these are insufficient. True peace requires a federation of free states bound by shared constitutional principles, each respecting the other's sovereignty not from weakness but from rational self-interest. The essay anticipates the League of Nations and United Nations by 150 years, yet its real power lies in the argument itself: peace is not naive idealism but the ultimate practical necessity. For anyone who wonders whether another world is possible, this is where the modern idea of international order begins.