Hegel's international law in terms of religion-politic relations

Many different scientific disciplines are interested with international relations. Among them, there are law, political science, economy, philosophy etc. Through history of philosophy, we know that many philosophers have expressed their opinions on international relation. One of them is Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, even though international relations never gained significance as much as state and history in his philosophy. It would not be an exaggeration to assert that his philosophy is quite state centric and there is no truth, for him, without the state. For this reason, one cannot properly explain Hegel's international relations unless he clearly understands his opinions of the state. For Hegel, also, the religion is an indispensable fact for the state. Therefore, this study examines the international relations in a theological-political context. In this study, we take a method, named as constructive, which also fits the total philosophy of Hegel. From point of this method, we attempt to deal with the themes as far as possible away from a particular-atomistic approach and thus establish firstly international law, then determine its subjects and finally discuss the relations among them. In addition, we also compare, in footnotes, Hegel's opinions with some other philosophers' that can draw attentions on occasion. This study researches Hegelian international relations with three thesis. These are "role of the religion", "function of the unity", and "the İdealism-Realism context". We reach in this thesis the following results, such as: Religion is the basic of Hegel's international relations. The unity of international relations is the universal state, i.e. the history. War and international institutions are, for Hegel, primarily the subjects of İdealism. But today his political İdealism disturbs many humanist philosophers especially because of his positive approach to war and negative attitude towards international institutions.