The Study of International Relations the State of the Art

Ethics and Morality in International Relations

Joseph Hoover

• LAST REVIEWED: xiii July 2020
• LAST MODIFIED: 29 September 2015
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0119

Introduction

Ethical questions are cardinal to the report of international relations, equally it is a field of written report concerned with state of war and peace, trade and production, and police and rights. Yet, a persistent conventional wisdom suggests ideals are marginal to international relations. This conventional wisdom has two sources. After Globe War II, as the discipline of international relations was taking shape in the Great britain and the The states, a number of prominent scholars holding a realist view on questions of ethics came to dominate the field. Figures such as Hans J. Morgenthau, Reinhold Niebuhr, and E. H. Carr criticized what they saw equally the misplaced moralism of earlier scholars who put their faith in the power of law and institutions to reform international relations. Non long after this move toward a realist paradigm that was skeptical of ideals, the discipline besides began to focus on developing a value-gratis social scientific approach that rejected upstanding questions as function of the report of international relations, especially in the United States. Yet, these two early shifts in the discipline obscure the fact that questions of ethics have e'er been part of the study of international relations. International relations, however, is concerned with political events and social forces that bear upon the lives of individuals, communities, and the man species as a whole, making ethical considerations inescapable. At that place is a long tradition of ethical reflection on international relations, stretching as far back as homo beings have been concerned with intercommunal relations, but these reflections have been a secondary focus to the consideration of ethics and politics within communities. In part, this is why ethical questions about international relations come to the fore during periods of imperial expansion. Just War theory has its roots in St. Augustine's reflections on the duties of the Christian emperors of Rome to defend the empire. International law developed as a mode of justly dividing the world betwixt sovereign states and savage peoples in demand of civilization during the era of European colonialism, and human rights take taken eye stage since the end of the Common cold War, as the global influence of the United States reached its peak. Today, ethics are increasingly seen as a central part of the study of international relations. This shift has come about partly through the work of critical scholars working in a variety of traditions, who have rejected the long dominance of realism and the aspiration to a value-gratis social science. These critical voices include liberal political theorists, feminists, critical theorists, postmodernists, and postcolonialists. These diverse traditions share a commitment to taking ethical questions near international relations seriously—though what they come across as the scholar's contribution differs profoundly, ranging from offer normative prescriptions to deconstructing the conceptual distinctions that brand ethical judgment possible. Along with this shift within the bookish study of international relations, important changes accept also taken place in the interactions between states. Without suggesting nosotros accept gone through an epochal change to a supposedly unprecedented era of globalization, it is clear that the traditional Westphalian state organization has changed dramatically. In that location are more than sovereign states than earlier with a greater equality of political and economic power between regions, while at the same time international institutions and global civil society take expanded, and individuals have more than contact with each other outside of their national communities than was previously possible. Together with shifts in how nosotros think about international relations, these social changes have put ethics back onto the agenda. As the current country of the field is defined by a diverseness of perspectives and problems, this article is plural in the views represented and as broad ranging in its coverage as space volition allow—although students should be aware that much more information is available. Hopefully, other scholars will capeesh that boundaries accept to be drawn, and exclusions must be made.

General Overviews

Within the field of international relations, ideals took on a more prominent role starting in the 1980s with the rise of feminist approaches, illustrated in edited collections past Narayan and Harding 2000 and Whisnant and DesAutels 2010; the emergence of critical theory, notably in Linklater 1998; and increasing interest in postmodernist ideals, discussed in the edited volume by Campbell and Shapiro 1999, and traced with not bad clarity in Hutchings 1999. Further, a number of international relations scholars began reexamining the place of normative questions within the tradition of Western thought that forms the core of the subject. Boucher 1998 traced the historical relationship between ideals and international politics, and Brownish 1992 did like piece of work but focused on the re-emergence of ethical questions within the discipline of international relations. Keene 2005 provided a more than focused intellectual history of international political thinking.

• Boucher, David. Political Theories of International Relations: From Thucydides to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

  An excellent overview of the relationship between political theory and international relations theory that provides both an account of their historical divergence and a useful account of how international political theory is defined by three traditions: empirical realism, universal moral order, and historical reason.

• Chocolate-brown, Chris. International Relations Theory: New Normative Approaches. New York: Columbia University Printing, 1992.

  This text develops a normative international relations theory, drawing on historical and contemporary traditions within the discipline, while as well building bridges between international relations and political theory. The core distinction betwixt cosmopolitan and communitarian theories put forward in the book has been influential.

• Campbell, David, and Michael J. Shapiro, eds. Moral Spaces: Rethinking Ideals and Globe Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Printing, 1999.

  This edited collection draws together a number of postmodern thinkers from both international relations and political theory. It provides a adept overview of approaches and issues in world politics covered by this tradition.

• Hutchings, Kimberly. International Political Theory: Rethinking Ideals in a Global Era. London: SAGE, 1999.

  A very clear business relationship of the development of international political theory as a grade of normative international theory or global ethics, which also highlights the contributions made by critical theorists, feminists, and poststructuralists.

• Keene, Edward. International Political Thought: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge, U.k.: Polity, 2005.

  This text provides a history of political thought on international relations that focuses on conceptual changes in how relations between communities are conducted. It cocky-consciously avoids summarizing approved thinkers and looks across the modern European land organisation.

• Linklater, Andrew. The Transformation of Political Community: Ethical Foundations of the Mail-Westphalian Era. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1998.

  This influential text argues against both the lack of ethical reflection in conventional international relations theory likewise as the ethical skepticism of the realist tradition. In identify of this amoral arroyo, Linklater offers a critical theory of international relations inspired by Jürgen Habermas, which moves beyond country-centric thinking and argues for the necessity of a cosmopolitan political gild.

• Narayan, Uma, and Sandra Harding, eds. Decentering the Center: Philosophy for a Multicultural, Postcolonial, and Feminist World. Bloomington: Indiana Academy Press, 2000.

  This drove comes from outside international relations and draws on feminists and postcolonial philosophy, but conspicuously shows the influential piece of work on international relations washed within other disciplines.

• Whisnant, Rebecca, and Peggy DesAutels, eds. Global Feminist Ethics: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory. Lanham, Medico: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010.

  The collection brings out the of import and innovative role that feminism has played in global ideals, steadfastly rejecting the notion of a value-free social science and discussing a long-continuing concern with questions of political ideals that cross land boundaries.

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