The Hobbesian Case for Multilateralism |
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| Authors: | Francis Cheneval |
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| Institution: | 1. University f Zurich;2. Francis Cheneval is SNF‐professor of political philosophy and theory at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and lecturer at the European Institute, University of Geneva. He studied philosophy at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and political science at Georgetown University, Department of Government (Washington D.C.). He has been lecturer and guest professor in Paris (Ecole pratique des hautes études), Bogotá (Universidad de los Andes), Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and at several Swiss universities. His main research areas include: democratic theory, normative theory of multilateral integration, osmopolitanism, istory f political thought. |
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| Abstract: | In this paper an analysis of Hobbes' argument in favor of the Leviathan is combined with a reassessment in a new security environment. The analysis shows that Hobbes' premises are complex and lead to conclusions that differ from the realist as well as from the world‐state position, both attributed to Hobbesian logic in IR theory. A strict application of the Hobbesian argument in today's security context leads to a rationale of multilateral institution‐building among states. In the first part of the paper the internationalist analogy in the concept of war of all against all is uncovered and analyzed in relation to the security dilemma, domestic analogy, and methodological individualism. The second part reassesses the Hobbesian security rationale in a security environment which is assumed to be shaped by transnational terrorism and nuclear WMD. |
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| Keywords: | multilateralism theory of International Relations realism Hobbes democratic peace domestic analogy |
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