Ethics in International Relations A Constitutive Theory [Paperback]

Mervyn Frost argues that ethics is accorded a marginal position within the study of international relations and evaluates those ethical theories which do exist within the discipline.Most questions commonly asked about international politics are ethical ones. Yet, ethics is accorded a marginal position within the academic study of international relations. This text examines the reasons given for this, and evaluates those ethical theories that do exist within the discipline.Most questions commonly asked about international politics are ethical ones. Yet, ethics is accorded a marginal position within the academic study of international relations. This text examines the reasons given for this, and evaluates those ethical theories that do exist within the discipline.Most questions commonly asked about international politics are ethical ones. Should the international community intervene in Bosnia? What do we owe the starving in Somalia? What should be done about the genocide in Rwanda? Yet, Mervyn Frost argues, ethics is accorded a marginal position within the academic study of international relations. In this book he examines the reasons given for this, and evaluates those ethical theories that do exist within the discipline. Finally, he elaborates his own ethical theory, which he derives from Hegel, and applies it to central ethical problems in international politics today.Introduction; 1. The place of normative theory in international relations; 2. Sceptical and realist arguments against normative theory in international relations: a critical approach; 3. Normative issues in international relations: the domain of discourse and the method of argument; 4. Towards the construction of a normative theory of international relations; 5. Reconciling rights and sovereignty: the constitutive theory of individuality; 6. The justification of unconventional violence in international relations: a hard case for normative theory; 7. Who gets what state where? The Bosnian conflict;lÃq