Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This chapter proposes that we need a new political theory of global politics to guide us in a world increasingly marked by global interconnection, transnational activism on the part of nonstate actors, and political actors that utilize many different means (besides force and coercion) to exert influence on the world stage. The book develops such a theory by examining how justice-promoting intervention (reform intervention) implicates the values of toleration, legitimacy, and collective self-determination. The book then examines how this theory could be put into practice in the real world. Ultimately, the book argues that some reform interventions are morally permissible and may even be morally required. Moreover, we are sometimes morally required to open our own societies to reform intervention. The book presents a vision of conscientious global political contestation in which the achievement of justice everywhere can be the legitimate political concern of people anywhere.