Review: Ethics & International Affairs

Abstract

ETHICS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS A Reader, third edition Joel H. Rosenthal and Christian Barry, editors Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2009. 352pp, US$34.95 paper ISBN 978-1-58901-272-1This is third edition ofthe popular Ethics & International Affairs readers. Ten years have passed since second edition, and as scholar Chris Brown states on back ofthe latest edition, editors have extensively revised collection. Like its forerunners, it collects recent articles from journal Ethics & International Affairs, some of which are updated and slightly revised, and organizes them into four parts. Part I, on conflict resolution, includes contributions on realism (David Hendrickson), preventive war (Neta Crawford), and accountability and reckoning with past wrongs (David A. Crocker). Part II covers grounds for intervention, including essays that provide an overview of topic (Michael Smith), moral basis for intervention (Terry Nardin), responsibility to protect in relation to Iraq and Darfur (Alex Bellamy), and a chapter on ecological intervention (Robyn Eckersley). Part III, on governance, law, and membership collects essays on global governance institutions (Allen Buchanan and Robert Keohane), democracy and international law (Seyla Benhabib), global justice for women (Alison M. Jaggar), and ethics of immigration laws (Joseph H. Carens). Part IV, on global economic justice, includes chapters on models of international economic justice (Ethan B. Kapstein), American empire (Robert Wade), accountability in development aid (Leif Wenar), and three chapters of an exchange between Thomas Pogge and Mathias Risse on world poverty and human rights.In their preface, Rosenthal and Barry, who also edit journal, note that their selections are neither 'hits' of international ethics, nor greatest 'misses' of global public policy, nor do they necessarily address the most pressing issues. Rather, selections are intended to be conversations... taken as invitations to normative, empirical discussions, and to ultimately balance between supply [ing] a volume fit for ethics classroom, and to reflect growing maturity ofthe of international ethics (x).If these are standards by which scholars, practitioners, and even general readers should measure this third edition, there is much to commend it. For starters, this is a fantastic, easily accessible and well-written series of contributions. Despite editors' modest prefatory remarks, these are selections from some ofthe most serious, vibrant, and esteemed scholars in today's field of international ethics. The essays, then, in addition to being straightforward, are still intellectually provocative and cover a wide range of topics. This makes this volume perfectly suited to courses on international ethics, of course, but with impressive coverage it could be used as a supplementary text in global development, international law, human rights, and international organizations courses. …