A Westphalia for every weather

Abstract

This article examines how the Peace of Westphalia has been interpreted and invoked from the conclusion of the peace itself to the present day. Rather than assessing whether different conceptions of Westphalia are valid or not, this article analyzes how conceptions of Westphalia have been used and reappropriated to legitimize notions of epochal change and constellations of power in international thought with profound consequences for international order. Ranging from celebrations of Protestant victory via visions of republican order and imperial international law to crude Cold War conceptions and its recent demise as a myth, the article demonstrates that conceptions of Peace of Westphalia have fulfilled a range of ideological functions crucial to the making of the modern international system.