Abstract
The idea of Westphalian sovereignty has been waning in the face of renewed support for individual human rights. One of the more audacious proposals for a new international order is offered by John Rawls, who calls for a Society of Peoples governed by public reason. I explore this new foundation for international relations by considering how much respect we owe to other peoples who, while hierarchical and illiberal, are not criminally responsible for the violation of fundamental human rights. The respect for intolerance and hierarchy demanded of liberal peoples exposes a flaw of Rawls' new world order. The remedy, I suggest, requires us to abandon the search for some overlapping political consensus of all the world's comprehensive doctrines. Liberals must defend basic rights to freedom and equality not because they are reasonable, which some peoples will never accept, but because they enhance human well being and are, therefore, just.
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