Traditions of International Ethics

by David R. Mapel (Editor), Terry Nardin (Editor)

This is the first comprehensive study of how different ethical traditions deal with the central moral problems of international affairs. Using the organizing concept of a tradition, it shows that ethics offers many different languages for moral debate rather than a set of unified doctrines. Each chapter describes the central concepts, premises, vocabulary, and history of a particular tradition and explains how that tradition has dealt with a set of recurring ethical issues in international relations. Such issues include national self-determination, the use of force in armed intervention or nuclear deterrence, and global distributive justice.

Genres: International Relations

342 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 1992

Reviews

[Raj Agrawal · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book of the International Politics curriculum. The authors use the context of "tradition" to determine the role ethics play in international relations. They use a variety of ethical lenses, as well as the concept of "rights" and the use of the Bible in shaping intra- and inter-state norms.

The only weakness in this book that I saw is Cartwright's assessment of how the Bible has been used as a normative tool -- he overgeneralizes, attempts to offer interpretation of Scripture at places where he is clearly not an expert, and misses many of the Christian influences on governing that would help understand the role the Bible still plays in American foreign policy and domestic ethics.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looks at ethical approaches to the study of international politics that have been dominant at different times, starting with realism, and going through Kantian idealism, contractarianism, consequentialism/utilitarianism, and Marxist approaches.