International Ethics members publish books in a wide range of areas. Here is a selection of some of the outstanding scholarship recently produced by our members:
International Ethics: A Critical Introduction
Richard Shapcott
Polity (April 2010)
http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=0745631428
About the Book: Is it justifiable to make any basic moral distinction between ‘insiders and outsiders’? Do we have substantive duties of ‘justice’ to all human beings or merely humanitarian duties of aid and assistance? These are two of the most crucial questions confronting world politics and the field of international ethics today.
International Ethics: A Critical Introduction provides an engaging and accessible introduction to these foundational questions. In a cogent and carefully argued analysis, Richard Shapcott critically examines the theories of cosmopolitanism, communitarianism, realism and pluralism, and scrutinises their approaches to the various obligations which members of ‘bounded’ communities, primarily nation-states, have to ‘outsiders’ and ‘foreigners’. He then takes the theoretical approaches in context by discussing the ethics of hospitality and membership of political communities, issues of mutual aid and humanitarianism abroad, the ethics of harm related to interstate international violence, and the challenge of severe global poverty. The book concludes by suggesting that the terms of international ethical life in the 21st century require reframing in terms that focus more intently on the nature of harm between communities and individuals.
This book provides students and scholars with a conceptual framework with which to analyse the policies, actions and philosophy of governments, NGOs and international corporations. Above all, it provides the means whereby individuals can assess their own positions on contemporary ethical issues such as global poverty, humanitarian intervention, migration and refugees, and global warming.
About the Author
Richard Shapcott is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Queensland.
Contact: r.shapcott@uq.edu.au
Globalizing Justice: The Ethics of Poverty and Power
Richard W. Miller
Oxford University Press (April 2010)
About the Book: Combining deep moral argument with extensive factual inquiry, Richard Miller constructs a new account of international justice. Though a critic of demanding principles of kindness toward the global poor and an advocate of special concern for compatriots, he argues for standards of responsible conduct in transnational relations that create vast unmet obligations. Governments, firms and people in developed countries, above all, the United States, by failing to live up to these responsibilities, take advantage of people in developing countries. Miller's proposed standards of responsible conduct offer answers to such questions as: What must be done to avoid exploitation in transnational manufacturing? What framework for world trade and investment would be fair? What duties do we have to limit global warming? What responsibilities to help meet basic needs arise when foreign powers steer the course of development? What obligations are created by uses of violence to sustain American global power? Globalizing Justice provides new philosophical foundations for political responsibility, a unified agenda of policies for responding to major global problems, a distinctive appraisal of ‘the American empire’, and realistic strategies for a global social movement that helps to move humanity toward genuine global cooperation.
About the Author: Richard Miller is Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University.
Contact: rwm5@cornell.edu
Global Inequality Matters
Darrel Moellendorf
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec. 2009)
http://us.macmillan.com/globalinequalitymatters
About the Book: Global Inequality Matters takes seriously the presumption stated in international human rights documents that all persons possess inherent dignity. The book argues on that basis, and an account of justice as comprising associative duties, that the requirements of global distributive justice condemn existing global inequality. Although recognizing the importance of political equality within the state, the book rejects accounts of egalitarian distributive justice that limit its application to the state. It applies this perspective to several issues, including immigration controls, second language instruction, international labor codes, protectionism, climate change mitigation, and institutions of global taxation.
About the Author: Darrel Moellendorf is a Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for Ethics and Public Affairs at San Diego State University. He is also the author of Cosmopolitan Justice and co-editor of Global Justice:Seminal Essays (with Thomas Pogge) and Current Debates in Global Justice (with Gillian Brock).
Contact: dmoellen@mail.sdsu.edu
Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect: Who Should Intervene?
James Pattison
Oxford University Press (2010)
About the book: This book considers who should undertake humanitarian intervention in response to an ongoing or impending humanitarian crisis, such as found in Rwanda in early 1994, Kosovo in 1999, and Darfur more recently. The doctrine of the responsibility to protect asserts that when a state is failing to uphold its citizens’ human rights, the international community has a responsibility to protect these citizens, including by undertaking humanitarian intervention. It is unclear, however, which particular agent should be tasked with this responsibility. Should we prefer intervention by the UN, NATO, a regional or subregional organization (such as the African Union), a state, a group of states, or someone else? This book answers this question by, first, determining which qualities of interveners are morally significant and, second, assessing the relative importance of these qualities. For instance, is it important that an intervener have a humanitarian motive? Should an intervener be welcomed by those it is trying to save? How important is it that an intervener will be effective and what does this mean in practice? The book then considers the more empirical question of whether (and to what extent) the current interveners actually possess these qualities, and therefore should intervene. For instance, how effective can we expect UN action to be in the future? Is NATO likely to use humanitarian means? Overall, the book develops a particular normative conception of legitimacy for humanitarian intervention. It uses this conception of legitimacy to assess not only current interveners, but also the desirability of potential reforms to the mechanisms and agents of humanitarian intervention.
About the author: Dr James Pattison is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests concern the moral issues raised when using military force abroad, including humanitarian intervention, the responsibility to protect, and the increased use of private military companies. His PhD on humanitarian intervention was awarded the Sir Ernest Barker Prize for Best Dissertation in Political Theory by the Political Studies Association in 2008. He has also published various articles on the ethics of force, including for Ethics and International Affairs, International Theory, the Journal of Military Ethics, the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, the Journal of International Political Theory, the International Journal of Human Rights, and the Journal of Social Philosophy. Before joining Manchester, he was a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of the West of England, Bristol (from Sept 2007-09). He has also spent time as a Research Affiliate at New York University and he was a temporary lecturer in the School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology at Newcastle University.
Contact: james.pattison@manchester.ac.uk
THE POLITICS OF CONSTRUCTING THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: NGOS, DISCOURSE, AND AGENCY
Michael J. Struett
Macmillan (May 2008)
http://us.macmillan.com/thepoliticsofconstructingtheinternationalcriminalcourt
About the book: The book analyzes the political process that led to the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It argues that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played an important role in shaping key provisions in the Court’s statute and in achieving early ratification of the ICC Statute. NGOs were able to achieve this result through their use of principled, communicatively rational argument. Thus in addition to accounting for the particular outcome of the ICC negotiations, the book also makes a contribution to our theoretical understandings of the ways that NGO discourse can transform the process of policy formation in world politics.
Members of the ISA Ethics section may be particularly interested in the books claim that the reason of NGO effectiveness in the ICC negotiations rested in part on their use of ethical and normative arguments, as understood in communicative action theory.
About the author: Michael J. Struett is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University. He completed his Phd in 2005 at the University of California, Irvine. He received his bachelor's degree in political science with honors from Cal- Berkeley in 1995. He also has a 1998 master's degree from George Washington University's Elliot School of International Affairs. Much of Dr. Struett’s work focuses on the impact of non-governmental organizations in world politics, particularly the importance of their participation in processes of global governance. He is generally interested in the evolution of norms in world politics, and the role of international organizations and international law in contributing to world order.
Contact: mjstruet@ncsu.edu
THE ETHICS OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
Antonio Franceschet (editor)
Lynne Rienner (Feb. 2009)
http://rienner.com/title/The_Ethics_of_Global_Governance
About the book: Ethics is treated in this provocative book not as a set of rules, nor as a topic for philosophical discussion, but as an inescapable and necessary aspect of political life.
The authors analyze the ethical controversies that are central to global governance as states and other actors navigate a complex world order. Covering the gamut of fundamental issues—sovereignty, the role of civil society, UN reform, democracy promotion, humanitarian intervention, human security, the global economy, the environment—they offer the reader a deeper understanding of the significance of ethics in the politics of global governance and at the same time provide a fresh perspective on contemporary dilemmas in international relations.
About the author: Antonio Franceschet is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is author of Kant and Liberal Internationalism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) as well as articles on international theory, ethics, and law in Review of International Studies, European Journal of International Relations, Global Governance, Millennium, Journal of Global Ethics, and Alternatives. He is also Secretary (2008-2010) of the International Ethics Section.
Contact: afrances@ucalgary.ca
ONTOLOGICAL SECURITY IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Brent Steele
Routledge (2008)
http://www.routledge.com/books/Ontological-Security-in-International-Relations-isbn9780415772761
About the book: The book examines three forms of social action, sometimes referred to as ‘motives’ of state behaviour (moral, humanitarian, and honour-driven) and interprets them as fulfilling a nation-state's drive to secure self-identity through time. The anxiety which consumes all social agents motivates them to secure their sense of being, and thus the book posits that transformational possibilities exist in the ‘Self’ of a nation-state. The volume consequently both challenges and complements realist, liberal, constructivist and post-structural accounts to international politics. Using ontological security to interpret three cases - British neutrality during the American Civil War (1861-1865), Belgium’s decision to fight Germany in 1914, and NATO’s (1999) Kosovo intervention - the book concludes by discussing the importance for self-interrogation in both the study and practice of international relations. Ontological Security in International Relations will be of particular interest to students and researchers of international politics, international ethics, international relations and security studies.
About the author: Brent J. Steele is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas. His primary research interests cover a wide array of international relations topics, including international ethics, international political theory, United States foreign policy, Just War theory, ontological security theory and international security. In addition to his first book, Ontological Security in International Relations, he has published articles in journals such as International Relations, International Studies Review, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of International Relations and Development, Millennium and Review of International Studies. He also has an edited volume (with Eric A. Heinze) titled Ethics, Authority and War: Non-State Actors and the Just War Tradition, forthcoming with Palgrave.
Contact: bjsteele@ku.edu
PROTRACTED DISPLACEMENT IN ASIA: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME
Howard Adelman
Ashgate (October 2008)
http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=9942&edition_id=10908
About the book: In a protracted displacement situation, refugees are sequestered in camps without right of mobility or employment; their lives remain on hold and stagnate in a state of limbo for a long period. This book reviews the situation and results of research and policies that have left refugees as a forgotten group in protracted situations.
The work features case studies by experts who conducted field work examining long-term protracted refugee situations in Nepal, Thailand and Bangladesh, the protracted internally displaced (IDP) situation in Sri Lanka, and the refugee and IDP situation in Afghanistan. Also discussed is an emerging protracted refugee and IDP problem in Iraq. The volume concludes with an analysis of the lessons learned and the applications for policy, and incorporates a valuable bibliography detailing research in this hugely important area. This is a critical resource for academics and policy makers concerned with migration and governance issues.
About the author: Howard Adelman is currently completing a three year term as Research Professor at the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. After leaving York five years ago, he became first a Sr. Research Fellow and, in the subsequent year, a Visiting Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Howard Adelman was previously a Professor of Philosophy at York University in Toronto from 1966-2003 where he founded and was the first Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies and Editor of Refuge until the end of 1993. He has written or co-authored 9 books and edited or co-edited 20 others. He has authored 73 chapters in edited volumes, 96 articles in refereed journals, and 30 professional reports. He recently served as an Associate Editor of the Macmillan 3 volume Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. In addition to his numerous writings on refugees, he has written articles, chapters and books on the Middle East, multiculturalism, humanitarian intervention, membership rights, ethics, early warning and conflict management. In 1999, he and Astri Suhrke co-edited The Path of a Genocide: the Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press. Professor Adelman is currently completing a coauthored book entitled Rites of Return for submission to Princeton University Press, another on Military Intervention and Non-Intervention in the Twenty-First Century: An Australian Perspective for Routledge, and a co-edited volume with Pierre Anctil entitled, Religion, Culture and State: Canada and Québec: Reflections on the Bouchard-Taylor Report for the University of Toronto Press. Adelman is also currently completing a three year appointment as Deputy Convenor for the governance research network in Australia and in that role has been active in creating a networked-linked international consortium of governance researchers. Within that area he focused attention on health governance and co-founded the International Consortium for Research on the Global Health Workforce (ICR-GHW), HealthNet Australia, and the Canadian Consortium for Research on the Health Workforce. In an earlier phase of his career, when working on conflict management and early warning, he designed and helped create the early warning systems in the Horn of Africa for IGAD called CEWARN and the one for ECOWAS in West Africa called WARN.
Contact: howardadelman@rogers.com
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