'We Kant have bad states' : on evilization in liberal world politics

Abstract

Are there truly ‘evil’ states and if there are, how should the international community react and respond to the existence of evil? In this paper I am exploring the scope and meaning of ‘evilization’ by going back to Immanuel Kant, his conception of ‘unjust enemy’ and the prohibition of war he provides. The article is a reply to the piece by Harald Müller published in this journal a few years back and critically expands his important contribution to the literature exploring the nature of evil in Kant’s thought and consequent relationship between liberals and non-liberals in International Relations. By looking at the possibility of punitive measures against the evil states in particular, the paper wishes to illustrate how far the dichotomies of ‘good’/‘evil’, ‘liberal’/‘non-liberal’ and ‘inclusion’/‘exclusion’ can progress within the framework of liberal international thought and increasingly fragmented contemporary world politics. I wish to stress that the evils exist, to great extend, because the liberal international order creates and maintains them but also suggest that this is not a necessary condition of international society.