Metternich's Theory of European Order: A Political Agenda for “Perpetual Peace”
- 1 January 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Review of Politics
- Vol. 60 (1) , 115-150
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0034670500043953
Abstract
This article examines the foreign policy of Prince Clemens Metternich of Austria, the chief architect of the Vienna Treaty of 1815, in the light of Enlightenment political thought. Metternich is commonly considered a reactionary and practitioner of callous balance-of-power diplomacy, and this article seeks to refute this conclusion. By examining Metternich's deeply held theoretical beliefs on the nature of the European state system, and above all his Kantian belief in progress and federalism, this essay concludes that Metternich pursued a reformist, and indeed idealistic, program in international politics which cannot be divorced from late Enlightenment philosophy. His Conference System, which was designed to regulate European politics in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, represented a novel experiment in European union which remains a pressing concern in the contemporary international system.Keywords
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