Achieving Kantian peace in the European Union

• Main Author: Untalan, Al James C.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804; European Union—Politics and government; European Union—Foreign relations; Peace-building—European Union countries; Peace and Conflict Studies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/12647
• Institution: De La Salle University

From the desire to preserve the peace that Europe procured after the Second World War, the European Coal and Steel Community, the earliest predecessor of the European Union, was conceived. This organization facilitated interdependence in the region for it integrated all its member states and required them to foster cooperation between one another. This interdependence eradicated the possible tension that may rise by ensuring that every arrangement would pose mutual benefits. As the success of economic interdependence became imminent, the need to widen the scopes of the organization had been realized.This led to the inclusion of the recognition and promotion of the principles of justice and human rights, the requisite to combat crimes, and the need to entrench the prevalence of democracy. Making this a repetitive cycle would result to the stabilization of peace as postulated in Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1975). Accordingly, the EU was able to achieve the through the Treaties of Amsterdam, Nice, Maastricht and Lisbon.