The National Interest: Normative Foundations

1986 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. David Clinton
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
National Interest ◽  
National Society ◽  
National Interests ◽  
International Environment ◽  
Concrete Objects ◽  
International Setting ◽  
The Common ◽  
Contemporary Study ◽  
Normative Foundations

“The national interest” is frequently criticized in the contemporary study of international relations as an ambiguous term that lends itself to the support of unethical state policies by justifying single-minded national selfishness. This article argues that much of the criticism of the national interest on normative grounds in fact derives from confusion over the meaning of the concept. It separates two meanings — national interest as the common good of the national society, set off from the international environment, and national interests as the concrete objects of value over which states bargain, within that international setting. It surveys six views of the link among the national interest, the international society that legitimates various state interests, and the demands of ethical action, and concludes that statesmanship which relies on both definitions of national interest can provide the best guide to ethical state conduct within the “anarchical society” of international politics.

Selfless Jurisdiction and the National Interest

2020 ◽  
pp. 64-91
Author(s):  
Cedric Ryngaert
Keyword(s):  
National Interest ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Economic Regulation ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Criminal Jurisdiction ◽  
The Common ◽  
Normative Perspective

This chapter examines the variables that may determine the exercise of jurisdiction in the common interest. It inquires what explanatory variables determine the dependent variable of the (non-)exercise of jurisdiction in the common interest, based on actual jurisdictional practice of states. However, the chapter’s approach is also normative where it seeks to justify particular interest-based practices of jurisdiction or recommends reform. The author argues that, realistically, bystander states are only likely to exercise selfless jurisdiction if this also serves their national interests. However, he submits that this limitation of cosmopolitan action need not be regrettable. Instead, it could be justified from a normative perspective. In particular, the variables determining the (non-)exercise of universal criminal jurisdiction as well as the jurisdictional extension of domestic economic regulation are discussed to support the argument.

International Business, Morality, and the Common Good

1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Velasquez
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
International Business ◽  
Greenhouse Effect ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
International Environment ◽  
The Common ◽  
Business Morality

The author sets out a realist defense of the claim that in the absence of an international enforcement agency, multinational corporations operating in a competitive international environment cannot be said to have a moral obligation to contribute to the international common good, provided that interactions are nonrepetitive and provided effective signals of agent reliability are not possible. Examples of international common goods that meet these conditions are support of the global ozone layer and avoidance of the global greenhouse effect. Pointing out that the conclusion that multinationals have no moral obligations in these areas is deplorable, the author urges the establishment of an international enforcement agency.

scholarly journals Patriotyzm ekonomiczny

2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Andrzej K. Koźmiński
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Economic Competition ◽  
National Interests ◽  
The Common

The article discusses a special type of expectations addressed to the economic actors. These expectations either directly or indirectly refer to the idea of “national interest” and the common national weal. The author starts his deliberations with the connections between economy and patriotism in the Polish economic and political thought of the 19th and 20th centuries. He also presents some sociological conditions of contemporary views and attitudes concerning the connections between economy and national interests. They have been confronted with the mechanisms of gaining supremacy in the increasingly globalized economic competition.

scholarly journals Weapons of the Meek

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna GrzyMala-Busse
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Common Good ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
The Common

How do churches influence public policy and why does their influence vary across similarly religious societies? Prevalent accounts focus on the mobilization of voter demand and coalitions with political parties that offer policy concessions in exchange for electoral support. This article argues, by contrast, that such strategies are both risky and costly, and it demonstrates instead the power of direct institutional access for writing legislation, vetting officials, and even running sectors of the state. Such institutional access is available only to churches with high moral authority: those perceived by the public as representing the common good and the national interest. Churches in Christian democracies have gained such moral authority by defending the nation against a foreign regime, state, or colonial power. In short, churches are most influential when they have the high moral authority to obtain direct institutional access—thus avoiding popular backlash against overt and partisan church politicking.

Sport and International Understanding—A Contradiction in Terms?

1985 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalevi Heinilä
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
National Level ◽  
International Olympic Committee ◽  
National Interests ◽  
International Understanding ◽  
Olympic Movement ◽  
Competitive Success ◽  
The Common ◽  
Sport Events ◽  
International Sport

The official value orientation of international sport emphasizes common good causes such as international understanding, peace, friendship, and Olympic solidarity. However, when nations compete in international sport events their operational goals are defined in terms of national interests and materialized in terms of competitive success. This is a basic dilemma and contradiction in international sport, and it is clearly evident in the Olympic movement. While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) operates on the basis of common good causes, the national Olympic committees (NOCs) operate on the basis of national interests. In fact, the NOCs are even reluctant to supervise any rules and resolutions interfering with this national pursuit of success, let alone recognize the common good values in international sport. In this paper it is hypothesized that international sport is vulnerable to a legitimation crisis because it is premised on values that are incompatible with the values and policies that guide involvement at the national level. This hypothesis is based on the results of a semantic differential pilot study through which the basic ideological concepts of international sport are compared with the operational concepts underlying national sport systems. It is concluded that since we know very little about the meanings people assign to international sport, it is difficult to make statements about the consequences of international events.

scholarly journals On the Analytical Importance of the National Interest in Theoretical Exploration of the European Integration Process

2016 ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Franciszek Strzyczkowski
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Level Structure ◽  
National Interest ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Governance

This article seeks to elaborate the theoretical discourse on different, competing explanations of the European integration, invoking the notion of the national interest that plays an essential role in the process. Despite increasing integration, the European interest remains quite different from the sum of the national interests of all Member States, and different theories, by presenting explanations of the integration process, raise or diminish its importance. The major premise of the intergovernmental theory is that the integration progress can be analyzed as an intergovernmental regime designed to coordinate the economic and political interdependence negotiated through bargaining. This implies that Member States’ behavior reflects actions taken by their governments based on rational choice, limited only by the domestic social demands and external strategic international environment. According to intergovernmentalism this process, within which states’ preferences are shaped, is in fact the process of national interest formation. In contrast, a second school of thought on integration, affiliated with supranationalism, has a more normative ambition, providing not only a description of the role of the national interest, but also bringing the ideas of its limitation, proposing changes on the mode of European governance aimed at shaping Europe in a more republican manner. Despite the dominant position of the national agents at almost every level of the European governance, for the supranational approaches, due to the multi-level structure of the European Union, controversy between national interest and European common good is rarely invoked. The assumption that one theoretical understanding and the assessment of the level of influence of the national interest as applied to the European integration can have profound legal and political implications, leads us to the conclusion that depicting the five most prominent attempts at capturing it theoretically remains essential for further analysis of the European structure and European legal order. Paradoxically, an unstable economic situation and its overreaching and predominant negative influence on all the Member States, might catalyze a redefinition of Europe and reinvigorate the discourse on both European common good and national interests.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document