Morality and Power

Abstract

The clearest clash between global morality and international or state-based international rules has been over humanitarian intervention and the international enforcement of human rights protections. For constructivist theorists of global civil society, the shift in the debate between the values of sovereignty and non-intervention and those of intervention and individual rights protection demonstrates the growing capacity of moral values to constrain the interests of power. A lead article in Foreign Affairs argues: ‘Humanitarian intervention…is perhaps the most dramatic example of the new power of morality in international affairs.’ (Gelb and Rosenthal 2003:6) As Mary Kaldor asserts: The changing international norms concerning humanitarian intervention can be considered an expression of an emerging global civil society. The changing norms do reflect a growing global consensus about the equality of human beings and the responsibility to prevent suffering… Moreover, this consensus, in turn, is the outcome of a global public debate on these issues. (Kaldor 2001b:110) Crucial for the constructivist perspective on the existence of actually existing global civil society is the belief that this ‘global public debate’ takes place not on the terms of power but that of morality.