ABSTRACT
The roots of political modernity in Europe can be traced back to the international setting that emerged from the Peace of Westphalia and is defined as a situation in which the states do not recognise any higher authority, thus living in a state of anarchy. However, with Hegel’s political philosophy it is possible to argue that states ultimately owe their legitimacy to a higher authority, namely history and the rationale it unfolds. In other terms, the understanding of history implies the understanding of international politics, as anarchical as it may seem, according to a certain underlying logic, which has a legitimising effect for the system. In this regard, it must nonetheless be highlighted that such an understanding of history is historically determined itself and is therefore an interpretation that rests on the dissolution of the historical becoming into the present in which it is expressed.
