Care ethics and International Relations: challenging rationalism in global ethics

Abstract

This article explores recent scholarship in the area of care ethics and International Relations. The article begins by tracing the journey of care ethics into the realm of the international or ‘the global’, and then moves on to elaborate on recent scholarship in the area of care ethics in International Relations. Through a discussion of three key areas – violence and conflict, the body, and the ‘pluriverse’ – I argue that feminist care ethics has the potential to offer a way forward in the light of growing critiques of moral rationalism in the international ethics/International Political Theory literature.