An Alliance of War and Peace : Europe and the Necessity of Diplomacy

Abstract

This essay seeks to approach the current tensions within the European Union through the lens of the philosophy on perpetual peace. Beginning with Kant's pamphlet On Perpetual Peace and his depiction of it as "an infinite process of gradual approximation", the text moves through Hegel's concept of the necessity of war in order to develop an understanding of the emergence of war between modern nation states. Finally, it approaches Derrida's critique of both Hegel and Kant as well as his own understanding of the conditions for peace in Europe, in an attempt to provide an explanation for the tensions haunting the EU during the last two decades.