ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces one of the seminal figures in the historical development of the just war tradition: Immanuel Kant. Kant did not explicitly identify with the just war tradition, for two reasons. First, it remained mainly concerned with wars between countries, and thus seemed out of touch with the burning issue of his era, which was violent revolution within a country. Second, the just war tradition was then, culturally, associated with Catholicism. When Kant wrote about war and peace, Western society was being convulsed by two world-historic revolutions: the American (1775–83) and the French (1789–99). Kant's reflections on war and peace as being particularly profound: uniting the just war tradition with the perpetual peace tradition; and bringing together Enlightenment optimism and liberal idealism in the committed reformist project of a better and more peaceful world.
