Justifying Cosmopolitanism to the Nationalists

Abstract

Justice without Borders: Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Patriotism. By Kok-Chor Tan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 234 pp., $70.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-521-83454-6), $25.99 paper (ISBN: 0-521-54232-4). In a recent report to the UN General Assembly, Secretary General Kofi Anan reminded world leaders of their obligation to increase overseas development aid to 0.7 percent of each state's gross national income, a target based on an agreement reached at a 2002 Millennium Goals Summit meeting (Anan 2005:16). Although world leaders voluntarily agreed to that figure, Anan's reminder is part of a larger discourse surrounding foreign aid that is based on a right to development, enshrined in various UN documents and treaties, rather than some vague notion of charity. But are leaders of developed countries really obliged to increase their levels of foreign aid? If so, what is the source of that obligation? In the current international system, state leaders have an obligation first and foremost to their own citizens. Individual citizens of developed countries tend to care more about their fellow citizens than about those in distant places, especially when it concerns policies that impact their wealth and safety. Leaders of some countries and their citizens might want to increase aid levels out of a feeling of charity or compassion for the poor around the world. Yet, proposing that leaders have an obligation to increase aid levels is a much stronger statement. To make an argument that would recognize national allegiances but also provide grounds for caring about individuals around the world is quite a challenge. Kok-Chor Tan takes up this challenge in Justice without Borders . Tan identifies himself as a cosmopolitan, but he wants to take seriously the claims of liberal nationalists and theorists of patriotism. His agenda in Justice without Borders is a conciliatory one. He believes that …