The domestic analogy revisited: hobbes on international order.

• Author: Grewal, David Singh
• Position: Thomas Hobbes - III. Civil Sovereignty and International Anarchy through Conclusion, with footnotes, p. 647-680

3. CIVIL SOVEREIGNTY AND INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY

   Hobbes's earlier, canonical works of political theory provide much better evidence for his views on these matters, and I rely on them in developing a different interpretation of his lack of endorsement of a global Leviathan: that he considered his theory of civil sovereignty to offer a solution to both interpersonal and international conflict. In brief, if we are to take seriously a great deal of Hobbes's writings, not to mention his stated reasons for writing, we cannot accept any presumption of constant war among commonwealths. Hobbes claimed that his work revealed the "royal road to peace," and he understood that solving the problem of war was not merely a matter of avoiding civil war. (127) Indeed, he supposed individuals would unite into commonwealths not only for protection from interpersonal danger in the state of nature, but also for common defense against external enemies. As he put it explicitly in De Cive, "It is useless for men to keep peace amongst themselves, if they cannot protect themselves against outsiders; and it is impossible to defend themselves if their strength is not united." (128) As Hobbes proposed to reveal the way that people can "keep peace amongst themselves," we must assume that he offered, at least to his own satisfaction, some grounds for thinking that these gains in domestic order would not be undermined by international conflict.

   Leaving aside Hobbes's stated reasons for writing, there is a more basic argument that supports the contention that he must have supposed both international war and domestic strife to be solved through the creation of sovereign states: his endorsement of the domestic analogy at the level of the problem but not the solution. Williams argues:

   [I]f states are identical to Hobbesian individuals--that is, if the purported anarchy of international relations relies upon a direct analogy to Hobbesian political theory--why does not the move to an international Leviathan also follow directly? Conversely, if it is argued that states-as-Hobbesian-individuals would not contract globally because none could trust the others, then the initial construction of the Hobbesian contract must also be cast into doubt.... (129) Thus, if we do not conclude that Hobbes was confused--or at least vulnerable to an extension of his own argument, as Rousseau may have thought (130)--then we must suppose that he believed a solution to the problem of international anarchy was already present in the political program he proposed. The move to a global Leviathan would have to be possible for the same reason that civil society itself was possible, and yet he never counseled it, but still claimed he had solved the problem of how to establish peace.

   Why, then, might Hobbes have thought both international and civil wars would cease with the institution of a well-ordered commonwealth? To take up this central question, we must first recognize that Hobbes did not view international relations as constituting a sphere distinct from domestic political arrangements. Constructing the state at the domestic level does not leave intact an international anarchy that tends toward war; rather, the dynamics of interstate relations depend ultimately on domestic political arrangements. Neglecting Hobbes's view of the interrelation of domestic and international politics has made it appear that he missed a necessary international counterpart to his program of domestic peace. However, on a more detailed examination of Hobbes's writings, we discover less anxiety about the international state of nature than the interpersonal one, even though he uses both to illustrate the anarchic condition.

   Perhaps, as Bull observes, the major reason for this difference is that while commonwealths share the problem of natural men in a state of anarchy, they do not need to respond in the same way because they are not, Hobbes argues, at similarly great risk. (131) This means that states are not uniformly bellicose agents. The analogy between the interpersonal and international states of nature breaks down once we recognize that not only can states defend themselves better against other states than natural individuals can against one another, but they can also gather more information about what other states are planning, thereby addressing the epistemic uncertainty that leads to preemption in the interpersonal state of nature. Hobbes claims that the "first requirement" of a state's defense is intelligence gathering and espionage; the second is the fortification of borders and amassing of armaments and war monies for future emergencies. (132) This is, of course, a far cry from genuine peace, as Hobbes recognized in denouncing preparation for war as war, (133) but it shows that Hobbesian commonwealths can afford to be less bellicose than Hobbesian individuals because they are less at risk from the anarchy of the international system. They require not preemptive strikes so much as espionage and defensive maneuvers, which reflect a less dangerous international context. In other words, not every anarchy is equally a state of war.

   Moreover, a prudent policy of national self-defense is a very different matter from vainglorious aggression, which is at the root of interpersonal conflict in Hobbes's foundational analysis. Indeed, in a discussion of the activities that lead to prosperity, Hobbes warned against "military activity, which sometimes increases the citizens' wealth but more often erodes it." (134) He argued that militarism usually amounts to unprofitable adventurism: "[W]e should not take enrichment by these means into our calculations. For as a means of gain, military activity is like gambling; in most cases it reduces a person's property; very few succeed." (135) Considering this assessment in light of his general view that "[a]ll society ... exists for the sake either of advantage or of glory," (136) Hobbes evidently believed that military rivalry between states reflects the pursuit of glory and thus proves an unreliable means of pursuing a state's real interest, the survival of the commonwealth. This circumstance stands in contrast to that of natural individuals who, lacking a sovereign, must judge threats and strike preemptively in order to defend their lives (even when seeking survival, not glory). As Tuck argues, "The power and industry which a state possesses give it a kind of security which no natural individual can possess, and as a result free it from ambition or vainglory." (137)

   This view of Hobbes is at odds with the realist reading, but has been emphasized by some scholars of international relations, especially the rationalist school, which takes Hobbes to have laid down rules for a tolerably peaceable international order. (138) Bull argues that Hobbes's "articles of peace contain within them most of the basic rules of co-existence on which states have relied in the international anarchy from Hobbes's time and before it to our own," and he emphasizes the difference between states and individuals under anarchy. (139) Similarly, Williams explains, "Hobbes believes that rational sovereigns will not act in an unnecessarily aggressive manner." (140) He notes further that "[s]ubstantively, Hobbes's ideas lend support not to contemporary analyses that focus upon the structural determinations of anarchy but to those that focus upon the interrelationship between domestic political structures and global processes." (141)

   As suggested above, this focus brings Hobbes closer to today's "constructivism" than "realism" in refusing a dichotomous view of intrastate and interstate dynamics. Malcolm, in a systematic study of Hobbes's views on international relations, agrees with this assessment: "Overall, Hobbes's account contains many of the ingredients of what modern theorists describe as an 'international society'...." (142) Malcolm argues that the law of nature, which obtains as a single law at both the domestic and international level, continues to operate as a thin moral requirement of state actors. (143) This thin moral requirement, along with aspects of state self-interest, conduces to an international order that is not one of pitched battle, except in the limiting case: "The general picture that emerges here is of cooperation and interaction between states, and between the subjects of states, taking place at many levels." (144) Malcolm emphasizes that the jural analogy between persons and states in the interpersonal and international state of nature does not erase other obvious, practical differences between persons and states.

   It is important to recognize that these practical differences between natural individuals and states make the interpersonal state of nature and the international one susceptible to the same solution, namely, the domestic institution of a well-ordered commonwealth. As the rationalist reading has rightly emphasized, Hobbes believed states are different kinds of agents from natural individuals, and can more peaceably coexist with other states. Nevertheless, it may be possible to reconstruct a fuller picture of Hobbes's views: the rationalist interpretation gives us a tolerable international anarchy, but not Hobbes's promised "royal road to peace." (146)

   Hobbes was clear that the establishment of a well-ordered commonwealth would mean security for its own citizens against internal and external threats. Generalizing this condition requires inferring from Hobbes's political theory what a system of such states--a world of well-ordered commonwealths--would be like. Such a reconstruction is necessarily speculative, but since Hobbes assumes that individuals in the state of nature will be able and willing to form a commonwealth to secure themselves, individually and collectively, it is not too great a stretch to imagine a world composed of such commonwealths, even though Hobbes himself does not explore that vision. As I discuss in Part V below, an idea...