An Anatomy of International Thought

2021 ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Independent States ◽  
International Anarchy ◽  
International Thought

International relations encompass three aspects: international anarchy, with sovereign states recognizing no political superior; routine interactions in diplomatic, legal, and commercial institutions; and moral solidarity, with cultural and psychological links more profound than those of politics and economics. Thinkers who underscore international anarchy regard the idea of international society as fictional. Hobbes, for example, maintains that the only remedy for anarchical competition is to make a contract for a ruler or an assembly to take power and act to ensure security. Grotius and other thinkers who emphasize the extensive informal, legal, and customary interactions in international affairs highlight humanity’s sociability and its potential for constitutionalism and the rule of law. Kant and others anticipate the vindication of humanity’s potential for peace through the deepening of the material and moral interdependence of people around the world. This may come about through uniformity of independent states in standards of virtue and legitimacy or through the political and moral unification of humanity.

International ethics and international law

1992 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Nardin
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
International Ethics ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Ethical Significance

In this paper I am going to argue a familiar but still controversial thesis about the relation between international ethics and international law, which I would sum up in the following list of propositions:First, international law is a source as well as an object of ethical judgements. The idea of legality or the rule of law is an ethical one, and international law has ethical significance because it gives institutional expression to the rule of law in international relations.Secondly, international law—or, more precisely, the idea of the rule of law in international relations—reflects a rule-oriented rather than outcome-oriented ethic of international affairs. By insisting on the priority of rules over outcomes, this ethic rejects consequentialism in all its forms.

THE POLITICAL FRONTIERS OF EUROPE AS A CIVIL SOCIETY: J. HABERMAS’ REJECTION OF A EUROPEAN VOLK AND M. FOUCAULT'S BALANCE OF POWER AS PROTECTIONS AGAINST EUROPEAN NATION‐STATE

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Machiel Karskens
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Ideal

With the help of J. Habermas and M. Foucault, it is argued that the idea of Europe is, first of all, the ideal of an unlimited civil society. Human rights, the rule of law and the legal European institutions are its political backbone. The European Union itself is somehow the realization of this ideal conception of a borderless, unlimited society. It is argued that the European Union in this respect is a heterotopia within the bordered and sovereign member states themselves. Seen from the outside, however, and in the world of geopolitics, Europe is a political power with closed borders and excluding frontiers. In this respect the European Union is a continuation of the old European Balance of Power.

scholarly journals Facets of Democracy: An Overview

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 15-29
Author(s):  
Aswasthama Bhakta Kharel
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Elected Representatives

 Democracy allows the expression of political preferences of citizens in a state. It advocates the rule of law, constraints on executive’s power, and guarantees the provision of civil liberties. It also manages to ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms of people. In democracy, people are supposed to exercise their freely expressed will. Ordinary people hold the political power of the state and rule directly or through elected representatives inside a democratic form of government. Democracy is a participatory and liberal way of governing a country. Different countries in the world have been practicing various models of democracy. There remains the participation of people in government and policy-making of the state under democracy. But when the majority can pull the strings of the society without there being legislation for protecting the rights of the minority, it may create a severe risk of oppression. Many countries of the world at the present time are facing democratic deficits. In several countries, the democratic practices are not adequately regulated and governed, as a result, the rise of violations of rules of law is observed. Even a few countries practicing democracy are not living peacefully. This situation has put a significant question about the need and sustainability of democracy. Democracy is a widely used system of governance beyond having several challenges. Here the concept, origin, models, dimensions, practices, challenges, solutions, and future of democracy are dealt to understand the structure of ideal democracy.

Western Values in International Relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 49-87
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Government ◽  
Moral Standards ◽  
Western Values ◽  
International Morality

This essay presents the three main traditions of thinking about international relations in Western societies since the sixteenth century, with particular attention to the ‘middle ground’ between extremes. These extremes are typified by thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hobbes at one pole, and Kant and Wilson at the other. The via media is associated with the development of constitutional government and the rule of law, as represented by thinkers such as Grotius and Gladstone. The essay illustrates the differences among these three traditions by analysing their distinct positions concerning international society, the maintenance of order, intervention, and international morality. ‘Western values’ are most effectively supported by thinkers and leaders who neither deny the existence of international society nor exaggerate its foreseeable prospects for gaining greater cohesion and strength. The middle course—the mainstream of the ‘Western values’ tradition—respects moral standards and sees moral challenges as complex, instead of regarding them as simple or nonexistent.

International Society in Victorian Political Thought

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Bell
Keyword(s):  
International Society ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
The Press ◽  
Henry Sidgwick ◽  
The World

This chapter analyzes the overlapping ideas about international society to be found in the political thought of three leading late Victorian liberal thinkers: T. H. Green (1836–82), Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), and Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900). In so doing it focuses on what Stefan Collini has labeled the world of the “public moralists”—the world, that is, of influential and well-connected British intellectuals who flourished in the universities, in Parliament, and in the press. Despite their manifold political and philosophical differences, Green, Spencer, and Sidgwick shared and articulated complementary visions of the past, present, and future of international society. This was not simply a happy coincidence of views—it was an understanding of international politics generated from within their distinctive intellectual systems. They simultaneously reflected and contributed to late Victorian liberal thinking about international affairs.

scholarly journals Effects of the Core Functions of Government on the Diversity of Executive Agendas

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 1001-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Jennings ◽  
Shaun Bevan ◽  
Arco Timmermans ◽  
Gerard Breeman ◽  
Sylvain Brouard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Issues

The distribution of attention across issues is of fundamental importance to the political agenda and outputs of government. This article presents an issue-based theory of the diversity of governing agendas where the core functions of government—defense, international affairs, the economy, government operations, and the rule of law—are prioritized ahead of all other issues. It undertakes comparative analysis of issue diversity of the executive agenda of several European countries and the United States over the postwar period. The results offer strong evidence of the limiting effect of core issues—the economy, government operations, defense, and international affairs—on agenda diversity. This suggests not only that some issues receive more attention than others but also that some issues are attended to only at times when the agenda is more diverse. When core functions of government are high on the agenda, executives pursue a less diverse agenda—focusing the majority of their attention on fewer issues. Some issues are more equal than others in executive agenda setting.

Hobbes on the International Rule of Law

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Dyzenhaus
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
Independent States ◽  
International Rule

Perhaps the most influential passage on the rule of law in international law comes from chapter 13 of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan. In the course of describing the miserable condition of mankind in the state of nature, Hobbes remarks to readers who might be skeptical that such a state ever existed that they need only look to international relations—the relations between independent states—to observe one:But though there had never been any time, wherein particular men were in a condition of warre one against another; yet in all times, Kings, and Persons of Soveraigne authority, because of their Independency, are in continuall jealousies, and in the state and posture of Gladiators; having their weapons pointing, and their eyes fixed on one another; that is, their Forts, Garrisons, and Guns upon the Frontiers of their Kingdomes; and continuall Spyes upon their neighbours; which is a posture of War.

The Political Wisdom of Sir John A. Macdonald

1984 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rod Preece
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Minimal Change ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Constitutional Monarchy

AbstractMacdonald is described as a man of phronesis who possessed a sophisticated political philosophy which, in general, conformed to the political disposition exemplified by Edmund Burke. Macdonald's views on the constitution, change, representation, democracy, women, tradition, economics, religion and unions are investigated. It is concluded that Macdonald was an anti-rationalist who saw the world in terms of loyalty, duty and obligation and who was devoted to the principles of prudence, tradition and the rule of law, to constitutional monarchy, to the British connection and British institutions but with respect for French traditions, to the minimal change consistent with harmony, to order before liberty, politics before economics and experience before abstract reason.

scholarly journals Abazi, Enika, & Albert Doja (2016) "International Representations of Balkan Wars: A Socio-Anthropological Account in International Relations Perspective" Cambridge Review of International Affairs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enika Abazi ◽  
Albert Doja
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
The West ◽  
Balkan Wars ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This article introduces the socio-anthropological concept of international representations to examine the relationship between a civilizational rhetoric, the West European and the international politics of otherization and containment of Southeast Europe, and an essentialist and timeless bias in international relations theory, including both radical and constructivist trends. We first explore the different narrative perspectives on the Balkan wars from the beginning to the end of twentieth century. Their subsequent problematization is aimed at challenging the way how they have constructed commonplace and time-worn representations, which international society shares with different consequences in international affairs. This is a limited conception since international representations as a socio-anthropological concept are always socially, culturally and politically constructed, contested and negotiated. They do not neutrally refer to a reality in the world; they create a reality of their own. Moreover, this limited conception ignores the fact that how, by whom and in whose interest international representations are constructed is itself a form of power in international relations. Therefore, the way international representations are constructed can be problematized as an example of political and ideological projects that operate in the West as well as in the Southeast European countries that are the object of Western foreign policy.

Prosecuting War Crimes and Genocide: The Twentieth Century Experience. By Howard Ball. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1999. 288p. $35.00.

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 228-229
Author(s):  
Richard Falk
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
University Of Kansas ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Current Period ◽  
Augusto Pinochet

There is little doubt that an abiding feature of international relations in the current period is the struggle to extend the rule of law to crimes of state. The 1998 detention in Britain of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, in response to a request for extradition issued by a Spanish judge, gave prominence to this quest. This development was further reinforced by the campaign to establish a permanent inter- national criminal court, which eventuated in a treaty signed in Rome by about 120 countries two years ago and is on its way to securing the 60 ratifications needed to bring it into force. Organized international society is far from the end of this journey; powerful governments, including our own, are not ready to submit their citizens or leaders to international procedures of accountability.

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