scholarly journals International justice and the reform of global governance: a reconsideration of Michael Walzer's international political theory

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER SUTCH
Keyword(s):  
International Politics ◽  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
International Ethics ◽  
International Theory ◽  
International Political Theory ◽  
Final Essay

AbstractWalzer has recently updated his just war theory to take account of terrorism, humanitarian military intervention and new interpretations of the doctrine of self-defence, pre-emptive and preventative warfare The ethical considerations that underwrite Walzer's most recent work invite us beyond the routine citation of his work to a proper consideration of the moral parameters of international politics. Beyond Just and Unjust Wars Walzer has a wealth of insight into the key questions of international theory. His work on toleration, the nature of universality or on the role of social criticism has always been the basis of his insight in to the hard questions of international ethics. Despite being heavily criticised for being communitarian or conservative (both charges that need serious re-evaluation) Walzer's ideas offer a real alternative to the dominant neo-Kantian cosmopolitan tradition and a workable ethical framework for thinking about the challenges of contemporary international politics and international law. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the final essay of Arguing About War. The essay, entitled ‘Governing the Globe’ offers a radical vision of a reformed international society inspired by the principles that underpin Walzer's development of his just war theory and it is vital that we take notice.

The Ethics of Human Enhancement

2019 ◽  
pp. 403-424
Author(s):  
Janice H. Laurence ◽  
Joshua A. Carlisle
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Just War ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Adjacent Field ◽  
And Performance

This chapter raises some ethical considerations and highlights the debate regarding the burgeoning field of human enhancement (HE) and performance optimization. The topic of human enhancement is complex because it gets to the heart of what we take to be the central concerns of ethics, involving concepts such as human nature, identity, fairness, dignity, virtue, and duties to our offspring and fellow beings. This chapter proposes a framework for discussing the ethics of human enhancement. It serves both as a structure for understanding current issues and debates and as a guide for stakeholders to use in making decisions about the ethics of particular HE interventions. In doing so, the ethical framework described borrows from Just War Theory (JWT), an adjacent field of applied ethics. Just Enhancement Theory (JET) provides key considerations that are necessary to argue that a particular HE intervention or class of interventions is morally permissible. Such a framework could help stakeholders navigate the complexities of the moral terrain as they make important decisions and contributions in this increasingly important area.

Just War Theory in Times of Individual Rights

2018 ◽  
pp. 220-232
Author(s):  
Janina Dill
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
International Political Theory ◽  
Radical Revision

Just war theory (JWT) has undergone a radical revision over the last two decades. This chapter discusses the implications of this reformulation for the role of JWT in International Political Theory (IPT) and for JWT’s strategic usefulness. Revisionists’ consistent prioritization of individual rights means JWT now follows the strictures of justified violence according to contemporary IPT. At the same time, the collective nature of war makes it impossible for anyone but the omniscient attacker to properly protect individual rights and thus to directly implement revisionist prescriptions. I argue that revisionism is strategically relevant not in spite of, but because of this lack of practicability on the battlefield. It highlights the impossibility of waging war in accordance with widespread expectations of moral appropriateness, which largely follow the strictures of justified violence according to contemporary IPT. This is a crucial limitation to the political utility of force in twenty-first-century international relations.

Humanism, the Bible, and Erasmus’s Moral World Order

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Tubau
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Just War ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
World Order ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Moral Formation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Moral World

This chapter sets Erasmus’s ideas on morality and the responsibility of rulers with regard to war in their historical context, showing their coherence and consistency with the rest of his philosophy. First, there is an analysis of Erasmus’s criticisms of the moral and legal justifications of war at the time, which were based on the just war theory elaborated by canon lawyers. This is followed by an examination of his ideas about the moral order in which the ruler should be educated and political power be exercised, with the role of arbitration as the way to resolve conflicts between rulers. As these two closely related questions are developed, the chapter shows that the moral formation of rulers, grounded in Christ’s message and the virtue politics of fifteenth-century Italian humanism, is the keystone of the moral world order that Erasmus proposes for his contemporaries.

The Real Costs of War

2017 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
The Real ◽  
Morality Of War ◽  
Real Costs

While Just War Theory is the best account of the morality of war, along with many others, the author does not believe that actual decisions by states to go to war are often, or at all, informed by such ethical considerations. A much more plausible view is given by the doctrine of realism, familiar in international relations. This chapter discusses realism as a basis for evaluating weapons research in wartime, and here the author refers to Clausewitz views of war and politics. His conclusion, in a nutshell, is that since states on this account are only concerned with their own interests, there can be no assurance that the products of weapons design will not be used for aggression.

Levinas and the Ethics of War and Peace

2018 ◽  
pp. 566-586
Author(s):  
Joshua Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Ethics Of War

This essay considers the role of war in Levinas’s philosophy and his philosophy’s place in the secondary literature on the ethics of war. It is argued that his understanding of war most closely matches just war theory, although it bears similarities as well to pacifist fears about the depersonalization that occurs in war. These comparisons are used to raise concerns about both Levinas’s philosophy and just war theory. Reading just war theory through the lens of his philosophy exposes the inability of just war theory to settle pacifist fears about wartime depersonalization. Conversely, reading Levinas through the lens of this debate reinforces the worry that there may be an unbridgeable gap between ethics and justice in his philosophy.

A Critical Examination of the Assumptions, Beliefs and Ethical Considerations that Underlie Business Models of Global Poverty Reduction

2012 ◽  
pp. 238-261
Author(s):  
Paul Roberts ◽  
Griselda Lassaga ◽  
Isabel Rimanoczy
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
The People ◽  
Latin American Countries

Having identified key ethical considerations, a number of interviews will be conducted with people involved in these initiatives in three different Latin American countries focusing on how they have dealt with these ethical issues in practice. The data collected from these real cases will provide input for analysis. Using the ethical framework constructed in the chapter, three case studies will be offered by conducting interviews with people working in this field in different Latin American countries. These interviews will aim to explore how different practitioners think about and work with these ethical issues in practice. A social constructionist perspective will be used to understand how the people interviewed construct the way they understand the role of business in alleviating poverty, and the explicit or implicit role of ethics in this.

Just War Theory and the Problem of International Politics

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-175
Author(s):  
Helmut David Baer ◽  
Joseph E. Capizzi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Politics ◽  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory

scholarly journals A Just and Lasting Peace After War

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-64
Author(s):  
Lonneke Peperkamp
Keyword(s):  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Moral Idealism ◽  
Lasting Peace ◽  
Feasibility Constraints ◽  
Lively Debate

While a ‘just and lasting peace’ is the axiomatic goal of a just war, it is not clear what that means exactly. The central question of this chapter is: How should a just war theorist understand peace, insofar that peace is the goal of just war theory, taking into account the theory’s middle position between political realism and moral idealism? In the first part of this chapter, the contemporary debate is mapped and various positions on peace are made explicit. This reveals a shift towards a more positive concept of peace. How far should this shift go? The second part of this chapter places the peace continuum in a lively debate in political philosophy on the role of feasibility constraints in normative theory. This chapter argues that a ‘just and lasting peace’ must be understood as a decent peace that is ‘just enough’.

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