ABSTRACT
The chapter argues in favour of the controversial, and original, thesis that Immanuel Kant has a just war theory. Before specifically refuting, and ultimately transforming, the traditional reading of Kant's views on the ethics of war and peace, recourse must be made to the general conception of morality and international justice to which Kant is committed. The premise of Kant's international theory of justice, as a direct out-growth from his domestic conception, is that the subjects of this theory are states, and that states exist as moral persons. There are several basic perspectives on ethics of war and peace, with realism and pacifism at the extremes and just war theory. Kant, unlike the Just War Tradition, is not content to rest with the two standard categories of jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Indeed, he essentially invents a new just war category, jus post bellum, to consider in detail the justice of the move from war back to peace.
