Traditions Of International Ethics

This is the first comprehensive study of how different ethical traditions deal with the central moral problems of international affairs. Using the organizing concept of a tradition, it shows that ethics offers many different languages for moral debate rather than a set of unified doctrines. Each chapter describes the central concepts, premises, vocabulary, and history of a particular tradition and explains how that tradition has dealt with a set of recurring ethical issues in international relations. Such issues include national self-determination, the use of force in armed intervention or nuclear deterrence, and global distributive justice.

This is the first comprehensive study of how different ethical traditions deal with the central moral problems of international affairs. Using the organizing concept of a tradition, it shows that ethics offers many different languages for moral debate rather than a set of unified doctrines. Each chapter describes the central concepts, premises, vocabulary, and history of a particular tradition and explains how that tradition has dealt with a set of recurring ethical issues in international relations. Such issues include national self-determination, the use of force in armed intervention or nuclear deterrence, and global distributive justice.

This book broadens the scope of thinking about ethics in global social relations, criticizing the 'leading traditions' in international ethics, and exploring the ways in which some strands of feminist moral philosophy may offer an alternative perspective to view ethics in international relations.

The role of ethics in international relations is a long overlooked and now hotly debated issue. Realists say there is little room for ethics in a world dominated by security risks and national self-interest. Cultural pluralists contend that ethics and morality are relative, depending on the traditions of the society. Idealists are sobered by the complexity of ethical considerations posed by contemporary international challenges. Nonetheless, ethical dilemmas swirl around the globe and moral norms and actions are embraced. This new text presents the concepts, theories, methods, and traditions of ethical analysis and then applies them to case studies in the areas of human rights, military force, foreign intervention, economic statecraft, and global political justice. Although rooted in political philosophy, this clearly-written study will be of special interest to students and practitioners of international affairs who are concerned with the role of political morality and ethical judgment in global affairs.

This volume examines comparatively the views and principles of seven prominent ethical traditions on the issue of the making of state and national boundaries. The traditions represented are Judaism, Christianity, Islam, natural law, Confucianism, liberalism and international law. Each contributor is an expert within one of these traditions and demonstrates how that tradition can handle the five dominant methods of altering state and national boundaries: conquest, settlement, purchase, inheritance and secession. Readers range from upper-level undergraduates to scholars in philosophy, political science, international relations and comparative religion.

Appealing to just war thinkers, international relations scholars, policymakers, and the public, this book claims that the historical Christian, Islamic, and Hindu just war traditions reflect political concerns with domestic and international order. This underlying realism serves to counterbalance the overly optimistic approach of contemporary liberal just war approaches.

This collection of some of the best contemporary scholarship in ethics and international affairs explores the connection between moral traditions and decision making during and after the Cold War. Each author relates the timeless insights of philosophy and our collective historical experience to the hard choices of our own age. This volume should be of special interest to those working and teaching in international relations, diplomatic history, foreign policy, applied ethics, and related fields.

Ethics and International Relations (IR), once considered along the margins of the IR field, has emerged as one of the most eclectic and interdisciplinary research areas today. Yet the same diversity that enriches this field also makes it a difficult one to characterize. Is it, or should it only be, the social-scientific pursuit of explaining and understanding how ethics influences the behaviours of actors in international relations? Or, should it be a field characterized by what the world should be like, based on philosophical, normative and policy-based arguments? This Handbook suggests that it can actually be both, as the contributions contained therein demonstrate how those two conceptions of Ethics and International Relations are inherently linked. Seeking to both provide an overview of the field and to drive debates forward, this Handbook is framed by an opening chapter providing a concise and accessible overview of the complex history of the field of Ethics and IR, and a conclusion that discusses how the field may progress in the future and what subjects are likely to rise to prominence. Within are 44 distinct and original contributions from scholars teaching and researching in the field, which are structured around 8 key thematic sections: Philosophical Resources International Relations Theory Religious Traditions International Security and Just War Justice, Rights and Global Governance International Intervention Global Economics Environment, Health and Migration Drawing together a diverse range of scholars, the Routledge Handbook of Ethics and International Relations provides a cutting-edge overview of the field by bringing together these eclectic, albeit dynamic, themes and topics. It will be an essential resource for students and scholars alike.