Kant's Third Image: Systemic Sources of the Liberal Peace

Much recent scholarship has focused upon the apparent absence of war among liberal democratic states-the liberal To help explain the phenomenon, many refer to the political writings of Immanuel Kant, and the central role he envisioned for the liberal republic as the foundation for perpetual peace. Against this view, neorealists contend that Kant, and modern interpreters, overlook the important and unremitting force of anarchy among states. For neorealists, no peace dependent on only the internal pacific disposition of liberal republics can endure. Supporters of the Kantian interpretation respond that properly constituted republics can, in fact, overcome the anarchy among them, and that the present liberal peace therefore challenges the adequacy of systemic theories of international politics. This article argues that to view the significance of the liberal peace as a test of opposing levels of analysis misses deeper issues. Kant's thought