International Political Theory and Ethics

I'm a bit behind on this one, but I picked up Kwame Appiah's book late last week and have been workinging through it this weekend. While not controversial or revolutionary in the realm of global ethics, he does provide a more convincing cosmopolitanism that most philosophers. He's keen to focus on imagination and conversation as the most important steps toward a more inclusive approach to our ethical and moral thinking, as well as our actions at a personal and political level. For Appiah, the heart of cosmpolitanism is the idea that we can and should be concerned with human beings distant from us, especially given the increased global interaction and the attendent effects of that interaction. Basically, given that how we think and act effects people throughout the globe, we need to have an ethics with global concern, a good starting point for cosmopolitanism I think.

From there he tries to identify what is shared among all people, both in common physical capacities as well as thin versions of our moral and ethical concepts (he speaks mostly in the language of values) as a basis for understanding and for practice, even if the reasons why we support certain actions may not be the same for all of us. The style is simple and clear, without doing a diservice to either the content or the importance of the kind of work that he is doing. It uses a broad range of examples drawn from throughout the world, history and literature widely defined. As an added bonus to me, he's one of the few authors speaking to international/global issues in the language of values and, at least in some minimal sense, pluralism (John Gray being the other notable exception).

2008 Millennium Annual Conference
Call for Papers
Interrogating Democracy
Deadline 15 April 2008
Details here.

There's a recent Michael Walzer book that I believe will be of considerable interest to many, it is compiled and edited by David Miller, and is titled, 'Thinking Politically.' I've just read the first two pieces, both fine bits of writing that do quite a lot to fill in more of the details of Walzer's views on political theory. The collection is made up of previous writings, some published previously and others not, but this collection puts them together in a way that should make Walzer's output a bit more convienent to take in.

Details here.

Also a review of the book by Adam Kirsch, here. It's not the greatest engagement with the text, but does give you a sense of what is in the book. Also, near the end of the review he gives a very summary and unsympathetic reading to what Walzer is trying to say about cross-cultural/societal morality, which I can only assume (till I have read the work more closely) reflects Kirsch's misreading of Walzer's argument, rather than a surprise about-face on Walzer's part.

The aim of this blog is to bring together information, mainly of a scholarly nature, concerning the areas of study that can be broadly described as international political theory or international ethics. My hope is to use this space to collect references of articles, books, journals and conferences, as well as off discussion of particular pieces and events that are of interest.

At the moment this is a one-man enterprise, so it will undoubtedly reflect my particular biases and interests, but I do hope to encourage conversation with anyone who may stumble across these pages and in time to encourage others to participate. I'm particularly keen to get in touch with other graduate students working in the area as well as working academics, researchers and activists.

For now, I'll only mention three things: an upcoming conference that may be of interests, a journal I'm particularly interested in, and finally a very fine recent paper from Niamh Reilly that I want to recommend.

(1) In a totally self-serving bit of promotion, I would like to announce a call for papers for the Millennium Journal of International Studies Annual Conference, which is being held 25-26 October 2008. The subject is 'Interrogating Democracy in International Relations,' and the deadline for abstracts is 15 April 2008. More information can be found here. I happen to be one of the editors of this journal and was involved in selecting the conference topic, none the less I do think reflecting on democracy, in a number of ways and from a number of disciplinary and ideological perspectives, is a hugely important thing for us to do.

(2) I want to give a nod to the 'Muslim World Journal of Human Rights,' available online here. I'm quite interested in the work being produced by this journal, as my own research is concerned with the question of if and how human rights, as both moral values and legal instruments, transcend social and cultural barriers, which are often thought to be either insurmountable or insignificant in regards to human rights. This journal takes seriously both the universal scope of human rights as a project, but also tries to elucidate an understanding that is part of a Muslim intellectual and religious tradition, definitely worth a look.

(3) Finally, I just want to encourage people to read a recent article by Niamh Reilly, entitled 'Cosmopolitan Feminism and Human Rights,' in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Vol. 22, No. 4, available here. Niamh is a Senior Lecturer, Global Women's Studies Programme, School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland, Galway, and her paper is I think a very good critique of both relativist/skeptical positions on human rights, as well as a critical appraisal of the cosmopolitan position. Good stuff.

More soon,

Joe