John Locke and International Politics

Abstract

There has been an earlier attempt to characterize Locke’s international theory. This is by Richard H. Cox (encouraged by, amongst others, Hans Morgenthau, Leo Strauss and Kenneth Thompson) in Locke on War and Peace. Cox gives an account of Locke which makes him appear very close to his fellow English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his thinking about international politics. According to Cox, Locke was very much concerned about the insecurity and instability of international relations and recommended an extreme watchfulness in foreign policy. Foreign policy takes precedence over domestic policy because it concerns issues on which the survival of the state depends. States have to look to themselves for any enforcement of an international order and cannot afford to be complacent in the preparation of their defences. According to Cox’s interpretation of Locke, ‘the state of nature between sovereign commonwealths is in fact a vestige of the original state of nature which, so far from being a state of plenty and harmony of interests, is one of extreme penury and conflict’.² As a consequence, it may be said that Locke ‘views the actual standard of international behaviour as one which is set by the tendency of the least law abiding’.³ Locke is portrayed as almost as deep a pessimist about the human and international condition as Hobbes. No genuine progress is envisaged in international affairs: ‘The state of nature between commonwealths is one of unending though irregular oscillation between actual war and uneasy peace.’ ⁴

‘Among critical philosophers Locke deserves priority’ — Immanuel Kant¹