The Kantian position on humanitarian intervention

Kant is commonly criticized for his stance on state sovereignty and its relation to\ud humanitarian intervention. Philosophers interested in international justice - even those\ud with strong Kantian roots - tend to reject Kant???s perfect duty not to violate a state???s\ud sovereignty, claiming that there are at times clearly legitimate reasons for intervening in a\ud sovereign???s affairs. In this thesis I shall demonstrate that what we call ???intervention??? is in\ud many cases permissible in Kant???s political philosophy. I will briefly sketch Kant???s moral\ud philosophy as laid out in The Groundwork for the Metaphysics o f Morals and his political\ud philosophy as laid out in Toward Perpetual Peace. These sketches will demonstrate the\ud prima facie conflict between moral obligations toward foreign citizens and the\ud sovereignty of states. I then defend the perfect duty not to violate sovereignty and show\ud why other attempts to account for intervention in a Kantian framework fail. I shall then\ud examine the notion of sovereignty through Kant???s curious position toward the French\ud Revolution. From this examination I shall layout my theory of intervention and\ud demonstrate its uses in real world cases