The Mirage of Permanent Solutions in International Relations, by Francis P. Sempa

By Francis P. Sempa, The American Spectator, June 26, 2025

The quest for permanent global peace is an illusion.

In 1795, Immanuel Kant wrote a book titled Perpetual Peace just prior to the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars. More than a century later, Norman Angell wrote The Great Illusion, which argued that great power wars were becoming obsolete, just prior to the outbreak of World War I. H. G. Wells and Woodrow Wilson described World War I as “the war to end all wars,” when in fact it was the prelude to what Raymond Aron accurately called The Century of Total War. When the Cold War ended, President George H. W. Bush spoke of a “new world order,” while Francis Fukuyama wrote that we were at The End of History, yet the 21st century has experienced lengthy wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a Global War on Terror, the Russia-Ukraine War, and warfare between Israel and its enemies in the Middle East. Yet the quest for permanent solutions continues — most recently in proposals for regime change in Iran, which, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham, will result in permanent peaceful relations between Israel and the Muslim world.