Universality, Ethics and International Relations A Grammatical Reading [Paperback]

Universality Ethics and International Relationsintroduces students to the key debates about ethics in international relations theory. This book explores the reasons why grappling with universality and ethics seems to be a profound endeavour and where we end up when we do.

By offering a new way of thinking about ethics in International Relations, Pin-Fat shows that there are several varieties of universality which are offered as the answer to ethics in global politics; the divine universality of Hans Morgenthau, the ideal universality of Charles R. Beitz and the binary universality of Michael Walzer. Taking the reader on a grammatical odyssey through each, the book concludes that profound searches for the foundations of universality cant fulfil our deepest desires for an answer to ethics in global politics. Pin-Fat suggests that the failure of these searches reveals the ethical desirability of defending universality as (im)possible.

An ideal text for use in a wide variety of courses, including ethics in international relations, international relations theory, and international political theory, this work provides a valuable new contribution to this rapidly developing field of research.

1. Reading Grammatically:Reading, representation and the limits of language  2. Universality as Conjunctive Solution: Ethics 'and' International Relations  3. Divine Universality: Morgenthau, alchemy and the national-interest  4. Ideal Universality: Beitz, reason and the ghost of Houdini  5. Binary Universality: Walzer, thinning the thick and fattening up the thin  6. In Defence of Universality: (Im)possible univeralism

'A sophisticated and refreshing argument against the metaphysical seductions of universalism in IR theory. Pin-Fat's Wittgensteinian 'grammatical reading' takes theories of international ethics back to the rough ground in ways that challenge l£*