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Full Idea
It must remain possible, even in wartime, to have some sort of trust in the attitude of the enemy, otherwise peace could not be concluded and the hostilities would turn into a war of extermination.
Gist of Idea
Some trust in the enemy is needed during wartime, or peace would be impossible
Source
Immanuel Kant (Perpetual Peace [1795], 1.6)
Book Ref
Kant,Immanuel: 'Political Writings', ed/tr. Reiss,Hans [CUP 1996], p.96
A Reaction
Consider the 'unconditional surrender' approach to the Nazis in 1944, and the peace of May 1945, made with very different Germans. How do you make peace with an enemy you cannot trust?
| 23401 | A military victory is not a thing of beauty [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
| 8238 | Seeking peace through war is like looking for fish up a tree [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
| 19783 | A state of war remains after a conquest, if the losers don't accept the winners [Rousseau] |
| 21074 | Some trust in the enemy is needed during wartime, or peace would be impossible [Kant] |
| 24100 | If you don't want war, remove your borders; but you set up borders because you want war [Nietzsche] |
| 23858 | War is perpetuated by its continual preparations [Weil] |
| 23592 | We can only lead war towards peace if we firmly enforce the rules of war [Walzer] |
| 23618 | Unconditional surrender can't be demanded, since evil losers still have legitimate conditions [McMahan] |
| 20691 | Real peace is the implausibility of war (and not just its absence) [Harari] |