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Dynamic Cosmopolis: The “Westphalian World Order” and Beyond

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The Palgrave Handbook of International Political Theory

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Abstract

This chapter distinguishes between static cosmopolitanism, which holds that all humans already belong to some sort of community, and dynamic cosmopolitanism, which holds that this community is a goal in the future, and that it should be formed, cultivated and promoted. I start with the concept of the “Westphalian world order”, suggesting that the term should only be used for the era of European politics from 1648 to the Congress of Vienna. So-called international legal theory in Europe from roughly 1500 to 1800 can be divided into four different “schools”: the imperialist school, the Christian-commonwealth school, the society-of-states school and the cosmopolitan school.

The chapter offers a brief outline of the historical developments and points at the dynamic elements in selected philosophical and cosmopolitan theories of early European modernity. I argue that dynamic legal cosmopolitanism and dynamic commercial cosmopolitanism undermined the very notion of a “Westphalian world order” and the tenets of the society-of-states school.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kant’s works are cited according to the abbreviations given in the list below. This is followed by the volume and page number in Kant’s Collected Works (Gesammelte Schriften) with the Academy Edition (Akademie-Ausgabe), unless otherwise indicated. The English translations are from the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant (1992-). The abbreviations used are the following: G = Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten/ Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals; CPJ = Kritik der Urteilskraft/ Critique of the Power of Judgment; TPP = Zum ewigen Frieden/ Towards Perpetual Peace; Anth = Anthropologie in Pragmatischer Hinsicht/ Anthropology from a Pragmatic Standpoint; LP = Vorlesung über Pädagogik/ Lectures on Pedagogy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Georg Cavallar

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  1. Georg Cavallar
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Correspondence to Georg Cavallar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Howard Williams

  2. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    David Boucher

  3. School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Peter Sutch

  4. Department of Philosophy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    David Reidy

  5. School of Psychology and Humanities, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

    Alexandros Koutsoukis

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Cavallar, G. (2023). Dynamic Cosmopolis: The “Westphalian World Order” and Beyond. In: Williams, H., Boucher, D., Sutch, P., Reidy, D., Koutsoukis, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of International Political Theory. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36111-1_9

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