How Cosmopolitanism Reduces Conflict. A Broad Reading of Kant's Third Ingredient for Peace

Kant’s theory of peace has been reinterpreted under one of the most influential research programs of our times, namely the so-called democratic peace theory. In particular, the third ingredient of Kant’s "recipe" – the cosmopolitan right to visit – has been recognized as a powerful and effective instrument to reduce militarized interstate conflicts. In the hands of political scientists, however, this ingredient has become nothing more than a set of rules for securing and facilitating international trade and economic interdependence. This paper argues that this narrow reading mistakes international trade as the essence of the third definitive article. Kant sees economic interdependence as a means for the realization of what cosmopolitan right is truly about, i.e. the affirmation of a set of rules for protecting humans qua humans, the creation of communal bonds among individuals beyond national or group loyalties, the promotion of a global moral conscience modeled on the natural rights of man.