Hobbes and the Constructivist Theory of Equality

The political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes revolutionised the concept of equality in a way that has had an enduring importance for how we conceive of the state and its place in international society. Conventional wisdom narrates a ‘Hobbesian’ tradition of international thought that is largely viewed as realist, and hence linked intellectually to the heritage of Machiavelli and other classical realists. This tradition stresses things like international anarchy, security, deterrence and the primacy of national interests, while downplaying the role of international law and other institutions as well as the element of ethics and morality in international affairs. While realists sometimes justify political conduct from an ethical point of view, referring to patriotic or nationalist ethical reasoning, there is little interest among realists in the ethical relations of the political space outside the bounded community. Consequently, international relations are reduced to a ‘struggle for power and peace’ (Morgenthau, 1967). However, it has been shown that Hobbes’s international theory involves a much broader variety of theoretical positions and a number of ideas that are not conventionally associated with a ‘Hobbesian’ tradition (Malcolm, 2002; Prokhovnik & Slomp, 2011). This chapter shows that the way in which Hobbes theorised equality is central to his international theory.