This paper maps definitions of modernism extracting some of the features of aesthetic modernism as it discusses Descartes, the Enlightenment, Cartesian rationalism and the notion of ‘aesthetics’. Within modernism, I consider its major assumptions, values, (or its aesthetic), the theoretical sources of formalism and the ideas and outstanding figures associated with modernism, such as Immanuel Ka...

In this paper, we evaluate the liberal claim that democratic states devote fewer resources to their militaries. Low military spending is thought to avert conflict spirals and release more resources to fund domestic programs. While prominent in many liberal international relations theories, most notably in Immanuel Kant’s, this proposition has received little empirical scrutiny. Using several in...