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This article claims that Immanuel Kant's unique international thought can contribute to theorising about European integration. The specific nature of this contribution is the lesson that cosmopolitan aspirations and the continued existence of autonomous states should not be viewed as mutually exclusive, but are the fundamental terms with which the process of integration must negotiate continually. The approach of the article is to assemble the essentials of a Kantian framework in order to accomplish two things: (1) an evaluation of the dominant strands of existing integration theory; and (2) to supplement philosophically those emerging refinements to integration theory that wish to conceive of the dialectical relationship between cosmopolitan purposes and the principle of state sovereignty. The article concludes by noting the limits to the type of liberalism that undergirds the Kantian framework, and further suggests that the twentieth century tradition of integration theory may actually have something important to contribute to an improved Kantian politics.
