Equality in International Society: A Reappraisal PDF
Preview Equality in International Society: A Reappraisal
GlobalEthicsSeries SeriesEditor:ChristienvandenAnker,Reader,DepartmentofPolitics,Univer- sityoftheWestofEngland,UK Global Ethics as a field builds on longer traditions of ethical reflection about (global)societyanddiscussesethicalapproachestoglobalissues.Theseinclude butarenotlimitedtoissueshighlightedbytheprocessofglobalisation(inthe widest sense) and increasing multiculturalism. They also engage with migra- tion, the environment, poverty and inequality, peace and conflict, human rights,globalcitizenship,socialmovementsandglobalgovernance.Despitefluid boundaries between fields, Global Ethics can be clearly marked out by its mul- tidisciplinaryapproach,itsinterestinastronglinkbetweentheory,policyand practice and its inclusion of a range of work from strictly normative to more empirical. Booksintheseriesprovideaspecificnormativeapproach,taxonomy,oraneth- ical position on a specific issue in Global Ethics through empirical work. They explicitlyengagewithGlobalEthicsasafieldandpositionthemselvesinregard to existing debates even when outlining more local approaches or issues. The Global Ethics Series has been designed to reach beyond a liberal cosmopolitan agendaandengagewithcontextualismaswellasstructuralanalysesofinjustice incurrentglobalpoliticsanditsdiscipliningdiscourses. Titlesinclude: CarlosR.Cordourier-Real TRANSNATIONALSOCIALJUSTICE AnnaGrear REDIRECTINGHUMANRIGHTS FacingtheChallengeofCorporateLegalHumanity RonnieHjorth EQUALITYININTERNATIONALSOCIETY AReappraisal ShahramKhosravi ‘ILLEGAL’TRAVELLER AnAuto-EthnographyofBorders IvanManokha(editor) THEPOLITICALECONOMYOFHUMANRIGHTSENFORCEMENT MandisaMbali SOUTHAFRICANAIDSACTIVISMANDGLOBALHEALTHPOLITICS DarrelMoellendorf GLOBALINEQUALITYMATTERS MichalNahman EXTRACTIONS SecuringBorders,TraffickingHumanOva DerrickM.NaultandShawnL.England(editors) GLOBALIZATIONANDHUMANRIGHTSINTHEDEVELOPINGWORLD KatherineTonkiss MIGRATIONANDIDENTITYINAPOST-NATIONALWORLD AKMAhsanUllah REFUGEEPOLITICSINTHEMIDDLEEASTANDNORTHAFRICA HumanRights,Safety,andIdentity ChristienvandenAnkerandIlsevanLiempt(editors) HUMANRIGHTSANDMIGRATION TraffickingforForcedLabour GlobalEthicsSeries SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–01958–4 (outsideNorthAmericaonly) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to usattheaddressbelowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesand theISBNquotedabove. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS,England Equality in International Society A Reappraisal Ronnie Hjorth ReaderinPoliticalScience,SwedishNationalDefenceCollege,Stockholm,Sweden ©RonnieHjorth2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-0-230-39315-8 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2014by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-35225-8 ISBN 978-0-230-39316-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230393165 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Hjorth,Ronnie,1964– Equalityininternationalsociety:areappraisal/RonnieHjorth(reader inpoliticalscience,SwedishNationalDefenceCollege,Sweden). pages cm—(Globalethics) Summary:“Theauthorre-examinestheconceptofequalityininternationalsociety, pastandpresent.Theconventionalviewthatequalityofstatesnecessarilyflows fromsovereignty,thatitisacorollarytosovereigntyorsimplyasynonym,is consideredacontingentratherthananecessarycontention.Themainargumentis thatequalityinglobalinternationalsocietyshouldbetheorisedanew,restoring thenormativestrengthoftheprinciple.Itisshownhowconceptsofequalitymake intelligibledifferentnormativeandethicalconceptionsofthemodernpolitical spaceinthepast.DrawingontheworksofsuchdiversetheoristsasHansKelsen, PeterSinger,JohnRawlsandMichaelOakeshott,theauthorsuggestshowarenewed interestinequalitycontributestomakinginternationalsocietyamoreinclusive, egalitarian,andcrediblemoralandpoliticalassociation”—Providedbypublisher. Includesbibliographicalreferences. 1. Internationalrelations—Philosophy. 2. Internationalrelations—Moraland ethicalaspects. 3. Equalityofstates—Philosophy. 4. Sovereignty—Philosophy. 5. Balanceofpower—Philosophy. 6. Worldpolitics—Philosophy. I. Title. JZ1313.H542014 327.101—dc23 2014025305 Contents PrefaceandAcknowledgements vi 1 Introduction 1 2 Concepts,Approaches,Devices 9 Part I History:ABackwardGlance 3 TwoNaturalistTheories 29 4 HobbesandtheConstructivistTheoryofEquality 45 5 EqualityandHierarchy 65 6 SovereignEqualityandItsDiscontents 84 Conclusions 102 Part II Theory:AFreshBeginning 7 EqualitywithoutSovereignty 109 8 ANewFrameworkforEquality 125 9 TheLimitsofInternationalSociety 147 Conclusions 166 Bibliography 173 Index 182 v Preface and Acknowledgements Thisbookwaswrittenovertheperiodoftwoyearsfollowingmyarrival attheSwedish NationalDefenceCollegein Stockholm.Itis essentially the result of an intellectualjourney thatI began several years ago, and I doubt that I have yet reached the final destination. To borrow one of Michael Oakeshott’s metaphors, this book is possibly just another ‘platformofconditionalunderstanding’alongthejourney.Thestarting pointofthisinquiryisanunderstandingthatequalityininternational societyisunder-theorisedcomparedtogeneralpoliticaltheory,andthat the acceptance of the concept of ‘sovereign equality’, as expressed in theUNCharter,precludesthestudyofequalityininternationalsociety. Myintentionhasbeentodrawattentiontotheseshortcomings.Ithink of my argument as a liberating one, opening the door to new ways to conceive of equality in international society, past and present, and as an argument that offers a new framework for thinking about equality whilestoppingshortofsuggestingconcreteproposalsforreformorten- deringadviceastohowequalitymaybeenhancedinconcreteissuesof policy.Someoftheargumentsdevelopedherewereoutlinedinprelim- inary form in ‘Equality in the Theory of International Society: Kelsen, RawlsandtheEnglishSchool’ReviewofInternationalStudies,37(2011), pp. 2585–2602. I thank Cambridge University Press for giving me the permissiontodrawonthearticle. In the process of writing I have benefited from the many comments and suggestions received from colleagues who have read parts of the manuscript, or with whom I have discussed the topics or engaged in writtencorrespondence.IamgratefultoJanHallenberg,HeadofPolit- icalScienceattheNationalDefenceCollege,forsupportingtheproject and for being a continuous source of inspiration and encouragement. IamalsomuchindebtedtoBoH.LindbergwithwhomIbeganthisjour- ney. I would like to express my gratitude to Heather Harrison Dinniss, Hans Agné and Tom Lundborg who have commented on parts of my texts on various occasions, and who by simply taking a sceptical and somewhat critical posture towards my ideas, contributed a great deal to the shaping of my arguments. And, as always, many people have contributed with their points of view, offering interesting and often fruitful suggestions and criticism. They include Jens Bartelson, Kjell Engelbrekt,JacobWestberg,GöranCollste,ElinPalm,AndersNordgren, vi PrefaceandAcknowledgements vii BoPettersson,PeterHåkansson,MarenBehrensen,MarcusAgnaforsand JasminaNedevska.IthanktheeditorsatPalgraveMacmillan,Christina Brian,AmandaMcGrathandAmbraFinotello,foreditorialsupport,and theserieseditor,ChristienVanDenAnker,andananonymousreviewer, fortheirvaluablecommentsandsuggestions. Finally,Iwouldliketothankmyfamilyfortheirencouragement,love andsupport. IdedicatethisbooktoMax. 1 Introduction Thisbookisabouttheconceptofequalityininternationalsociety.The starting point for this inquiry is the contention that while equality is an essential concept in modern political theory it is not so in interna- tionaltheory.Inthepoliticaltheoryliteraturethereareseveralaccounts ofequality,such as formalequality,moralequality,equalitybeforethe law, equal liberty, material equality, equal access, equality of oppor- tunity, equality of outcome (Hoffman & Graham, 2006, 61–62); and in the history of political philosophy equality is often regarded not only as a central political idea but also as a vantage point for philo- sophical reflection. Accordingly, social contract theorists from Thomas Hobbes to John Rawls treat equality as a starting point for normative political theory. The challenge is to formulate a psychologically real- istic and formally structured concept of equality among moral and rational persons from which to theorise principles of political organ- isation. Hobbes’s understanding of the equality of fear is the point of departure for the journey from a state of war to orderly political relations (Hobbes, 1909, 94 [60]). For Rawls, the much more complex equality of the ‘original position’ is conditional for ‘justice as fair- ness’, which is the foundation for the theory of justice (Rawls, 1972, 11). In addition to social contract theory there is the classical politi- cal ideal of equality expressed by Aristotle as the ‘government of men free and equal’ and formulated in opposition to the patriarchal notion of the household (Aristotle, 1944, 29 [1255b]). Accordingly, Michael Oakeshott claims that a civil association is a ‘practice’ of which equal- ity among the participants is an essential element (Oakeshott, 1975a, 121). Hannah Arendt has commented about the relationship between freedom and equality in Aristotle, that ‘to be free meant to be free fromtheinequalitypresentinrulershipandtomoveinaspherewhere 1 2 EqualityinInternationalSociety neitherrulenorbeingruledexisted’(Arendt,1958,32).Thus,concepts of equality are central to the work of political theorists of different denominations. However, in the international relations literature equality among statesisgenerallyunderstoodinanentirelydifferentway,anditisnot given the same priority among political concepts. While it is true that equality of states is widely regarded to be one of the core principles of international law, it has not been given much attention by inter- national relations theorists. Generally, equality of states is understood in terms of ‘sovereign equality’ as expressed in the UN Charter (Klein, 1974; Suganami, 1990; Watson, 1998; Kingsbury, 1999). In this sense equality is viewed as a legal principle (legal equality) and derived from sovereignty (sovereign equality). It is a formal principle stipulating a fictitious equality of states. Moreover, legal equality of states is often regardedasanelementofsovereigntyalongwiththeprinciplesofnon- intervention and immunity. On this point Benedict Kingsbury claims that ‘the concept of sovereignty underpins a principle of sovereign equalitythathasattainedalmostanontologicalpositioninthestructure of the international legal system’ (Kingsbury, 1999, 66). Accordingly, HedleyBullclaimsthatequalityofstatesisbestunderstoodasa‘corol- lary principle’ to sovereignty whereas sovereignty is viewed as the ‘basicruleofcoexistence’(Bull,1977,36–37).Similarly,RobertJackson views sovereignty as a ‘precondition of international society’ and that sovereignty is a ‘normative foundation’for a society of states in which ‘equal sovereignty’ is ‘necessarily basic’ (Jackson, 2005, 75); and Hans Morgenthauarguesthatequalityofstatesis‘nothingbutasynonymfor sovereignty,pointingtoaparticularaspectofsovereignty’(Morgenthau, 1967,302).Buttheintimateconnectionbetweensovereigntyandequal- ity has also been questioned, for instance by Hans Kelsen. Kelsen argues that the rules governing equality of states are valid not because of sovereignty but because they are norms of positive international law (Kelsen, 1944, 207). Nevertheless, the general verdict seems to be that it is better to maintain a fictitious formal equality sustained by sovereigntythantorethinkequalityaccordingtosubstantialcriteriaor moralideas. The closed pair of concepts, equality and sovereignty, contributes to the containment of a politico-legal sphere that is stable, functional and practical, and that is serviceable as a framework for addressing issues of world politics, even demands for greater material equal- ity or recognition, without risking a breakdown of the entire order.
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