The Geography of Justice: Beitz's Critique of Skepticism and StatismPolitical Theory and International Relations. Charles R. Beitz

Abstract

Political Theory and International Relations is a fine piece of philosophical criticism and reconstruction that few established philosophers could have written because, to put it bluntly, they would not have known enough about politics, especially international politics. Even many political philosophers who genuinely would like to see implications for public affairs drawn from their reflections seem to believe that their own job as philosophers is finished when they have formulated and passed around some abstract principle of equality, justice, liberty, property, or such. Any fool, the working assumption seems to be, can then apply the principle to whatever concrete case bothers him: add the relevant facts, stir to a sticky consistency, and bake in a preheated oven. Yet merely selecting the relevant facts is a difficult and eminently philosophical task. It is, in any case, not a matter of pawing through piles of discrete facts and finding those marked relevant, but a matter of examining entire alternative conceptions of, in this case, international relations and judging how to structure the whole business. Charles Beitz provides in Political Theory and International Relations the theoretical foundations for normative standards applicable to transnational transactions, including not only foreign policies but also domestic policies that affect other societies. It would be difficult to think of a practically more important or an intellectually more unmanageable challenge. Beitz has emphasized the complexities without lapsing into endless complications and, while demolishing the two orthodox oversimplifications, left us with something coherent in their place. This is a first-rate book on an issue as fundamental as it is neglected: how shall we conceive of international relations, and what standards of assessment make sense against an empirically adequate conception?