The essays in The Question of Peace in Modern Political Thought address the contribution that political theories of modern political philosophers have made to our understandings of peace. The discipline of peace research has reached a critical impasse, where the ideas of both “realist peace” and “democratic peace” are challenged by contemporary world events. Can we stand by while dictators violate the human rights of citizens? Can we impose a democratic peace through the projection of war? By looking back at the great works of political philosophy, this collection hopes to revive peace as an active question for political philosophy while making an original contribution to contemporary peace research and international relations.
“This is a strong and integrated collection of insightful, informative essays, offering a critical account of philosophical reflections on the nature and conditions of peace from early modernity to the present. The authors skilfully trace the principal themes, theoretical divergences, and abiding problems in modern notions of peace, in relation to justice, rights, and freedom.”
“Can the study of peace be separated from the study of war? In The Question of Peace in Modern Political Thought, editors Toivo Koivukoski and David Edward Tabachnick attempt to present an interrogation of peace as an independent strand of philosophical inquiry. ...[T]his volume contains some fine essays, notably by Benjamin Holland on Emer de Vattel and morally non-discriminatory peace, Toivu Koivukoski on Henry David Thoreau and seeking peace in nature and Herminio Meireles Teixeira on Walter Benjamin and divine violence, an essay that explores with great clarity and dexterity some extremely complex and difficult ideas. But, as one reads over this set of essays, and as one sees the so-called refugee crisis unfold across Europe, it is Leah Bradshaw’s essay on "Kant, Cosmopolitan Right, and the Prospects for Global Peac" that appears most compelling and timely. ... The Question of Peace in Modern Political Thought is to be highly recommended. ... [P]rovide[s] a good introduction to those thinkers whom we do not normally associate with the idea of peace.”