ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the philosophical sources and influences that underlie Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations – in other words, to highlight some of the great thinkers and learning. The style and substance of Montesquieu was a clear corrective to the prevailing trend among so many academics, pundits, and even politicians as to how to comprehend international relations. The chapter examines Peace and War on its own terms, a book that Raymond Aron had thought about for some ten years as he tried to concretize his understanding of international relations and the new emerging international order. It utilizes the term "classical" in the broadest possible sense, namely to identify many philosophers, historians, and scholars from which Aron drew in his exhaustive analysis of international politics, and how he managed to weave them together into a coherent whole. Aron is fully aware of the sometimes horrible extremes to which war ultimately leads, especially in the twentieth century.
