A Century of Anarchy?: War, Normativity, and the Birth of Modern International Order (The History and Theory of International Law)

The nineteenth century has been understood as an age in which states could wage war against each other if they deemed it politically necessary. According to this narrative, it was not until the establishment of the League of Nations, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, and the UN Charter that the 'free right to go to war' ( liberum ius ad bellum ) was gradually outlawed. Better times dawned as this anarchy of waging war ended, resulting in radical transformations of international law and politics. However, as a 'free right to go to war' has never been empirically proven, this story of progress is puzzling. In A Century of Anarchy?: War, Normativity, and the Birth of Modern International Order , Hendrik Simon challenges this narrative by outlining a genealogy of modern war justifications and drawing on scientific, political, and public discourses. He argues that liberum ius ad bellum is an invention created by realist legal scholars in Imperial Germany who argued against the mainstream of European liberalism and, paradoxically, that the now forgotten Sonderweg reading was universalized in international historiographies after the World Wars. A Century of Anarchy? is a compelling read for historians, jurists, political theorists, international relations scholars, and anyone interested in understanding the emergence of the modern international order. In this groundbreaking work, Simon not only artfully deconstructs the myth of liberum ius ad bellum but also traces the political and theoretical roots of the modern prohibition of war to the long nineteenth century (1789-1918). Cover Series A Century of Anarchy? Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Setting the Scene 1. Introduction: A Century of Anarchy, a Right to War? 1.1 Problematizing the Past of an Omnipresent Doctrine 1.2 Force—​Normativity—​History: Deciphering the Grammar of the Modern Discourse of Justifying War 1.3 Bridging the Gap: A Note on Discourse Levels, Sources, and Disciplines 1.4 Reordering the Modern Discourse of War: The Structure of the Book 2. Thesis and Antithesis: Why States Justify War 2.1 Introduction: Anarchy, War, and Normative Order(s) 2.2 Narratives of ‘Anarchy’ and ‘Progress’: Reconstructing a Myth Transformation of the European War Discourse: From Bellum Iustum to Liberum Ius ad Bellum? ‘Right’ without Legal Regulation: A Narrative of ‘Anarchy’ Beyond Anarchy: The Discursive Construction of Legal Progress Disenchantment: Ordering War as a Modern Discourse of Rationalization? 2.3 The Discursive Power of Normativity: Towards a Genealogy of Modern War Justifications Discourses Remembered—​Discourses Forgotten War and Order: The Dialectics of a Normative Dichotomy A Constructivist Argument: The Discursive Co-constitution of the Justification of War and International Order Continuity, Contingency, and Change: The Nineteenth Century as the Era of Birth of Modern International Order Legalization, Moralization, Politicization: A Discourse of Multinormativity 2.4 Conclusion: On the Front Stages of Diplomacy Part I: Justifying War in the Nineteenth Century: A European Discourse 3. On the Threshold of Modernity: From Revolutionizing to Reordering War 3.1 Introduction: The Change of an Epoch 3.2 Justifying Revolutionary War—​Revolutionizing War Justifications? ‘Au nom de la nation’: The Revolution as the Birth of Modern War Discourse Paradoxes of Popular Sovereignty: From Limitation to Legitimation of Violence Emperor of the Revolution: Rise, Decline, and Justification of Napoléon’s Hegemony Between ‘Old’ and ‘New’: Europe’s Reactions to Revolutionary Violence The Battle of the ‘Nations’: The Birth of Modern Mass War and its Justification 3.3 Kant versus Clausewitz: Law, Politics, and the Formation of the Modern Discourse of Justifying War Revolutionizing Reform? The ‘Positivist Turn(s)’ in International Legal Thought: British Edition (Bentham) Revolutionizing Reform? The ‘Positivist Turn(s)’ in International Legal Thought: German Edition (Martens) Peace through Legalization: Towards a Modern Prohibition of War (Kant) War as an Instrument of Politics: On the Realist Discourse of Modern Warfare (Clausewitz) 3.4 Conclusion: ‘In the Beginning was Napoléon’ 4. Birth of an International Order 4.1 Introduction: Peace and Coercion after an Epoch of War 4.2 Towards a Modern Order of International Violence The Emergence of the Concert between Revolution and Reform Against War: Political and Normative Contours of a Modern Order of International Violence Hybrid Normativity: Two Paths to the Prohibition of War Beyond International Treaty Law ‘Positivists’ without Positivism: A Methodological Tragedy From the Trauma of War to the Institutionalization of Peace 4.3 Peace through Coercion: Limitation as Legitimization of Violence An Order Built on Normativity and Power Inventing Intervention: War in the Name of Peace Debating Intervention beyond Positive Law Ungentle Civilizers: Violence in the Name of Humanity? Violence as a Herald of Legal Progress? 4.4 Conclusion: The Janus Face of the Vienna Order 5. Between Might and Right: Justified Wars and Multiple Normativities 5.1 Introduction: Normativity in Times of War 5.2 Europeanizing the Eastern Question: The Struggle for Law at its ‘Semi-​periphery’ The ‘Last Crusade’? From the ‘Monks’ Quarrel’ to the Ottoman Declaration of War Law vs Religion? War Justifications in 1853/​54 Norm Emergence in Conflict: The Treaty of Paris as an International Suborder Submission: Law as an Imperial Project The Abolition of Privateering: Towards Universal International Law ‘A Vague Promise’ as ‘a First Step in the Right Direction’? The Mediation of Mediation New Conflicts—​New Principles: The Rise of the Nationality Principle 5.3 ‘Viva l’Italia’—​e Viva l’Ordine Internazionale? The Justification of War in the Risorgimento Revolution from Above: The Justification of the First War of Independence David against Goliath: Cavour’s Strategy of Justifying War against Austria Liberation of Italy—​Sardinian Rule: A Contradiction of the International Order? 5.4 Blood, Iron—​and Law?! Justifying German Unification ‘Blood and Iron’: Laying the Foundations of Bismarck’s Realpolitik 1864: Bismarck Turns Law against Law 1866: An Austro-​Prussian Duel? 1870/​71: An ‘Unprovoked Attack’? 5.5 Conclusion: Law and Realpolitik—a Mid-century Crisis of the International Norm of Peace? 6. The Promise of ‘Peace through Law’ in the Shadow of War 6.1 Introduction: Plans to Outlaw War and Their Antinomies 6.2 Pacification Through Professionalization? Liberal International Legal Doctrine as the ‘Conscience Juridique du Monde Civilisé’ 6.3 Mere Continuity? Liberal Legal Theory between Limiting and Outlawing War Liberal Legal Theory between Grotius and Kant Organizing Peace 6.4 Antinomies of the ‘Gentle Civilizers’: Liberal Justifications of War Liberal Justifications of Illiberal Violence Justifying Liberal Empires 6.5 ‘The Right Path’: Toward Reflexive Legal Peace (Schücking) 6.6 Conclusion: Politicized Depoliticizers between Utopias of Peace and Apologies of Violence Part II: Emergence of a Myth: A German Sonderweg? 7. Recht zum Krieg: A Clausewitzian Tradition 7.1 Introduction: German Realism and the ‘Right to War’ 7.2 A Positivist Polemic 7.3 War in the Name of the Machtstaat: The Formation of the ‘Right of the Strongest’ in German Historicism From Freedom to Power (Ranke) ‘Positive law is the only law that has real existence’—​Immoral Realism (Treitschke) ‘A people that cannot hate the foreign is a wretched people’ (Lasson) 7.4 A Clausewitzian ‘Legal’ Tradition War—​Always Factual and Very Often Political Violence (Lueder) Military Necessity: A German Cult War, ‘a true necessary bearer of culture’ (Lueder; Meurer) Towards Perpetual War (Stengel) 7.5 Varieties of Realism: Between Positivism and Bellicism Two Variations of a Thesis Radical Positivism beyond Germany: A Glimpse at Europe 7.6 Conclusion: A Counter-​Movement Against Liberalism 8. A Hegemonic Discourse? On Mainstream(s) and Myth(s) 8.1 Introduction: The Exception to the Rule(s) 8.2 A ‘First Great Debate’ between Realism and Liberalism Un Dialogue de Sourds? From the Excavation Sketches of a Buried Debate (Bluntschli vs Moltke) Against ‘Prussian Ethics’ (Pfau) Plea for a Public Science Beyond Realism (Lucas) Peace through Law—​or through ‘Holy War’ (Saripolos) ‘A Prism without Colours and Shapes’ (Beauharnais and Martens) 8.3 Defending Law against War—​Defending War against Law Defending War against Law (Lueder vs the Liberal Mainstream) Defending Law against War (the Liberal Mainstream vs Lueder) ‘Objections that are Easy to Refute’: Peace through Polemics (Novicow vs Stengel) Anarchy vs Pacifism 8.4 Conclusion: Bifurcation—The Ruling Doctrine vs the Doctrine of the Rulers 9. Antinomianism: The Kaiserreich’s Politics of Justifying War 9.1 Introduction: Breaking and Confirming the Law 9.2 International Legalization and Its Circumvention Peace at the Hague? An Unconventional Conference ‘And shit on all the resolutions’: German Anti-​Legalism at the Hague Conference 9.3 The End of an Era: Justifying the Great War Caught in Lies: Justifying the Unjustifiable Speaking Right and Wrong: The First World War as another Struggle for Law ‘Necessities’ of War: Elements of a German ‘Special Path’ 9.4 Conclusion: A German Sonderweg 10. Old Order, New Order: Historiography between Anarchy and Progress 10.1 Introduction: Beyond Black and White 10.2 Beyond Anarchy and War: The Narrative of Progress 10.3 Beyond Law and Order: Constructing the Narrative of Anarchy 10.4 Two Halves of a Whole: The Discursive Robustness of a Myth 10.5 Conclusion: Towards a New Historiography of War and International Order 11. War, Normativity, and the Birth of Modern International Order Select Bibliography Index