Analysis of the UN Charter in Light of the Postulates of Immanuel Kant's 'Zum ewigen Frieden.' The Objective of Peace and the Mechanisms of War

Abstract

This essay analyses the objective of maintaining peace, contained in the Charter ofthe United Nations, and how it regulates the conflicts that may put it at risk. Theproposed analysis will attempt to merge the ideas emanating from Kant's politicaltext, which sets guidelines for how a treaty aimed at achieving perpetual peaceshould be. The first section analyzes Chapter I (Purposes and Principles) of the unCharter, in accordance with Chapter VI (Pacific Settlement of Disputes) and withthe measures found in Chapter VII (Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace,Breaches of the Peace and Acts of Aggression), which present a conflict when compared with the notion of peace. The second section describes the Kantian text Zum ewigen Frieden and explains the articles of the model treaty. The last section consists of a comparative analysis of the un Charter and the Kantian model. Finally,the analysis led to conclude there is a normative antinomy that results in a materialimpossibility to fulfill the objective of maintaining peace.