This collection of essays cuts to the quick of the most pressing moral issues facing decision-makers today, from the actions of ordinary soldiers in a combat zone to presidents deciding when and where to use force. Ethics lie at the heart of human and therefore also international affairs, compelling nations to get involved "over there" and dedicate resources to intervention or to justify detachment. The politics and rhetoric of ethics constrain decision-makers, greatly complicating international situations. This third edition of Ethics and Statecraft addresses the moral reasoning behind the art of peacemaking as well as the ethics and statecraft of conducting war. The coverage ranges from historical transformations of whole eras of diplomatic and international history to issues of ethics of bombing and the laws of war. Specific attention is paid to emerging issues such as armed humanitarian intervention and sanctions, drone wars, war crimes, and economic justice. The work is ideally suited for undergraduate and graduate students of international relations, history, political science, and ethics. It will also be useful for NGO officials and military officers struggling with these issues in the field. General readers will find illumination of highly relevant historical issues—including Allied bombing of civilians during World War II—that set precedents for both expansion and limitations on the laws of war. They will also encounter pressing modern-day quandaries, such as the conditions that permit or even require military or humanitarian intervention, and the impact of new technologies on old moral problems.

While the 1990s gave rise to a wealth of literature on the notion of ethical foreign policy, it has tended to simply focus on a version of realism, which overlooks the role of ethics in international affairs. This book explores ethical realism as a theoretical framework.

Mark Amstutz illustrates the role of moral norms in global politics and the ethical foundation of the rules, institutions, and structures of global society with twenty-six new and revised case studies, including the ethics of climate change, the refugee crisis, and the Syrian civil war. The cases address the following major global issues: human rights, war, unconventional military operations, foreign intervention, international economic relations, justice among states, and global justice. This comprehensive study will be of special interest to students and practitioners of international affairs who are concerned with the role of political morality and ethical judgment in global affairs.

Based on case studies of five Third World countries - Sri Lanka, the Philippines, China, Indonesia, and Suriname - Gillies explores the extent to which policy principles were applied in practice, showing that consistent, coordinated, and principled action is elusive even for countries with a reputation for internationalism. He highlights the growing rift between North Atlantic democracies and emerging Asian economic powers, the effectiveness of using aid sanctions to defend human rights, and the vicissitudes of human rights programming in emerging democracies. On a theoretical level, Gillies examines the explanatory power of political realism and the scope for ethical conduct in a world of states. Linking policy assertiveness with perceived costs to other national interests, he constructs a framework for analysing policy actions and applies it to his various case studies, concluding that when it comes to human rights the gap between principle and practice is still far too wide.

While the 1990s gave rise to a wealth of literature on the notion of ethical foreign policy, it has tended to simply focus on a version of realism, which overlooks the role of ethics in international affairs, lacking an empirical analysis of foreign policy decision-making, with relation to ethical values in the post-Cold War period. This book addresses this gap in the literature by exploring ethical realism as a theoretical framework and, in particular, by looking at US humanitarian interventions at an empirical level to analyse ethical foreign policy in practice. Furthermore, it moves beyond the debate on legality or legitimacy of humanitarian interventions and focuses on whether a state would intervene for humanitarian purposes. Chang provides a deeper understanding of ethical foreign policy in theory and practice by applying ethical realism as a theoretical framework to evaluate the Clinton administration's foreign policy on humanitarian intervention. She addresses concepts of moral leadership and pragmatic foreign policy in the field of international relations in general and foreign policy analysis in particular.

This collection of some of the best contemporary scholarship in ethics and international affairs explores the connection between moral traditions and decision making during and after the Cold War. Each author relates the timeless insights of philosophy and our collective historical experience to the hard choices of our own age. This volume should be of special interest to those working and teaching in international relations, diplomatic history, foreign policy, applied ethics, and related fields.

The Global Covernant is a ground-breaking work by one of the leading scholars in international relations that rejuvenates the classical international society approach, and brings it into contact with the new era of world politics. It investigates the most important international issues of our time, including peace and security, war and intervention, human rights, failed states, territories and boundaries, and democracy. It draws on a family of closely related disciplines: diplomatic and military history, international legal studies, and international political theory. It addresses basic methodological questions and presents the elements of a human sciences approach to the study of world politics. It contemplates the future of international society in the 21st century. The Global Covenant concludes by justifying the pluralist society of sovereign states as one that respects human diversity and upholds human freedom.

This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of warfare ethics in early China as well as its subsequent development. Chinese attitudes toward war are rich and nuanced, ranging across amoral realism, defensive just war, humanitarian intervention, and mournful skepticism. Covering the five major intellectual traditions in the "golden age" of Chinese civilization: Confucian, Daoist, Mohist, Legalist, and Military Strategy schools, the book’s chapters immerse readers in the proper historical contexts, examine the moral concerns in the classical texts on their own terms, reframe those concerns in contemporary ethical idioms, and forge a critical dialogue between the past and the present. The volume develops fresh moral interpretations of classical texts such as The Art of War, Mencius, Xunzi, Mozi, and the Daodejing and discusses famous philosophers such as Han Fei and Wang Yang-ming, representing antithetical schools of thought about warfare. Attention is also given to the military ethics of the People’s Liberation Army, examining its thinking against the backdrop of its own civilizational context. This book will be of much interest to students of just war theory, Chinese politics, ethics, and philosophy, military studies, and International Relations in general.

Can moral behavior exist in a world of states? Under what conditions? Where if at all, do norms for moral behavior, considerations of right and wrong, fit int the relations between states? Drawing upon many historical examples, Stanley Hoffmann examines the complex questions of whether or not ethical action is possible in international politics and, if it is, what are the obstacles and constraints? Duties Beyond Borders tries to answer these questions and to suggest a course of “ethical politics” based on a pragmatic, realistic approach to international politics.

This is a major new edition of a highly-regarded textbook on International Relations theory which combines deep analysis into the diversity of thought within the major scholarly traditions and the guidance for students on doing their own theorising. Knud Erik Jorgensen analyses the nuances of the main contending theories and approaches, their philosophical underpinnings, and explains their use and relevance to different research agendas. This is all placed within the context of cross-cutting coverage of key current issues and debates; of the philosophical foundations of IR theory; and of why different theories are addressed to different research agendas. All chapters have been fully revised and updated, and a new chapter on the Human-Nature tradition has been included to reflect the changes within the field. This text is the most up-to-date and informative text on International Relations theory, and is an essential companion for all International Relations students.