Ethics And Statecraft

Demonstrates that ethics is, in fact, at the core of statecraft and diplomacy, rather than a peripheral concern, and explains how exemplary statecraft seeks to balance ethical and pragmatic interests.

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This collection of essays cuts to the quick of the most pressing moral issues facing decision-makers today, from the actions of ordinary soldiers in a combat zone to presidents deciding when and where to use force. Ethics lie at the heart of human and therefore also international affairs, compelling nations to get involved "over there" and dedicate resources to intervention or to justify detachment. The politics and rhetoric of ethics constrain decision-makers, greatly complicating international situations. This third edition of Ethics and Statecraft addresses the moral reasoning behind the art of peacemaking as well as the ethics and statecraft of conducting war. The coverage ranges from historical transformations of whole eras of diplomatic and international history to issues of ethics of bombing and the laws of war. Specific attention is paid to emerging issues such as armed humanitarian intervention and sanctions, drone wars, war crimes, and economic justice. The work is ideally suited for undergraduate and graduate students of international relations, history, political science, and ethics. It will also be useful for NGO officials and military officers struggling with these issues in the field. General readers will find illumination of highly relevant historical issues—including Allied bombing of civilians during World War II—that set precedents for both expansion and limitations on the laws of war. They will also encounter pressing modern-day quandaries, such as the conditions that permit or even require military or humanitarian intervention, and the impact of new technologies on old moral problems.

This collection of essays cuts to the quick of the most pressing moral issues facing decision-makers today, from the actions of ordinary soldiers in a combat zone to presidents deciding when and where to use force. Ethics lie at the heart of human and therefore also international affairs, compelling nations to get involved "over there" and dedicate resources to intervention or to justify detachment. The politics and rhetoric of ethics constrain decision-makers, greatly complicating international situations. This third edition of Ethics and Statecraft addresses the moral reasoning behind the art of peacemaking as well as the ethics and statecraft of conducting war. The coverage ranges from historical transformations of whole eras of diplomatic and international history to issues of ethics of bombing and the laws of war. Specific attention is paid to emerging issues such as armed humanitarian intervention and sanctions, drone wars, war crimes, and economic justice. The work is ideally suited for undergraduate and graduate students of international relations, history, political science, and ethics. It will also be useful for NGO officials and military officers struggling with these issues in the field. General readers will find illumination of highly relevant historical issues—including Allied bombing of civilians during World War II—that set precedents for both expansion and limitations on the laws of war. They will also encounter pressing modern-day quandaries, such as the conditions that permit or even require military or humanitarian intervention, and the impact of new technologies on old moral problems.

In this wide-ranging philosophical inquiry, Greg Russell considers the pioneering work of Hans J. Morgenthau, one of twentieth-century America's leading political philosophers. Making extensive use of the Morgenthau Papers at the University of Virginia, Russell differentiates Morgenthau's philosophy of realism from the European heritage of Machiavellianism or raison d'etat. He also evaluates Morgenthau's commentary on the nature of moral choice in political existence. After identifying Morgentau's ideological predecessors in Europe, Russell documents his departure from the canons of raison d'etat. He identifies Morgenthau's profound regard for the underlying purposes and ideals of American society. Morgenthau's objective, according to Russell, was to harmonize the successful defense of the national interest with the promotion of desirable values in foreign policy. The American statesman believed that the principles of morality and the necessities of power are not mutually exclusive categories by which to define the scope and objectives of the national interest. In Morgenthau's view, a responsible foreign policy must begin with the practical necessities of survival and the maintenance of a balance of power and, at the same time, accommodate the transcendent values of the American people, who insists upon universal moral principles.

Economic sanctions provide an alternative to waging war or a means to advance human rights. But are they morally justifiable? Philosophers have explored the ethics of war but rarely the ethics of carrots and sticks. Cécile Fabre offers a defense of economic statecraft, laying out a normative framework for this critical tool of diplomacy.

Composed by nine of his former students on the occasion of the Miller Center's tenth anniversary, these essays commemorate Dr. Kenneth W. Thompson's educational leadership and support. It is fitting that the contributors to this volume have chosen to present Dr. Thompson with a collection of essays devoted to moral reasoning and statecraft. As teacher and scholar, Dr. Thompson returns time and time again to explore the moral resources of statecraft and to probe the normative foundations of political choice. Contributors to this volume are Reed Davis, Alberto R. Coll, Farhang Rajaee, W. David Clinton, Daniel G. Lang, Nicolai N. Petro, Robert A. Strong, Ian Graig, Gale A. Mattox and Brian E. Klunk. Includes a complete bibliography of Dr. Thompson's writings. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Christianity, Politics, and the Predicament of Evil overcomes a defining divide in contemporary Protestant political ethics created by two contrasting conceptions of politics. The first, exemplified in the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, construes politics as a matter of statecraft that utilizes the power of government to secure the greatest possible order and justice for society as a whole. The second, most prominently articulated by Stanley Hauerwas, maintains that politics concerns itself with the cultivation of virtue; consequently, it finds not the “well-ordered state” but the church to be the exemplar of politics. Not only illuminating the divide between politics-as-statecraft and politics-as-soulcraft but also redeveloping the conceptual space between them, this book reconceives politics within a theological framework in which the eschatological City of God, rather than the well-ordered state or the faithful church, functions as the paradigm of political life. At the same time, it simultaneously recognizes that the existence of evil, which corrupts individual wills and social structures, inhibits human beings from building the City of God in this world. Analyzing, criticizing, and drawing resources from Niebuhr and Hauerwas, as well as looking beyond to Augustine, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, this book specifies the respective roles of soulcraft and statecraft in a political ethic capable of guiding Christians as they witness to God’s eschatological intention to establish the City of God in a world currently mired in the predicament of evil.