Ethics and International Affairs: Extent and Limits

296 Pages·2001·1.14 MB·English

by  Jean-Marc Coicaud

Ethics and international
affairs: Extent and limits
Edited by
Jean-Marc Coicaud and
Daniel Warner
UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY
PRESS
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Ethics and international affairs: Extent and limits
This page intentionally left blank
Ethics and international affairs:
Extent and limits
Edited by Jean-Marc Coicaud and Daniel Warner
a
United Nations
University Press
TOKYOuNEWYORKuPARIS
(TheUnitedNationsUniversity,2001
Theviewsexpressedinthispublicationarethoseoftheauthorsand
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UNUP-1052
ISBN92-808-1052-9
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Ethicsandinternationalaffairs:extentandlimits/editedbyJean-Marc
CoicaudandDanielWarner.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN92-808-1052-9
1. Internationalrelations-Moralandethicalaspects. I. Coicaud,
Jean-Marc. II. Warner,Daniel.
JZ1306 .E873 2001
1720.4—dc21 00-012897
Contents
Acknowledgements.................................................... vii
1 Introduction: Reflections on the extent and limits of
contemporary international ethics................................ 1
Jean-Marc Coicaud and Daniel Warner
2 International law as an approach to international ethics: A plea
for a jurisprudential diagnostics................................... 14
Friedrich Kratochwil
3 The ethics of modern diplomacy.................................. 42
Roberto Toscano
4 Violence and ethics: Beyond the reason of state paradigm ..... 84
Pierre Hassner
5 Justice and international order: The case of Bosnia and
Kosovo ............................................................. 103
David Campbell
6 Ethics and international human rights............................ 128
Jack Donnelly
v
vi CONTENTS
7 Environmental ethics in international society.................... 161
Oran R. Young
8 Ethics, feminism, and international affairs ....................... 194
Kimberly Hutchings
9 Ethics and refugees................................................ 217
Mark Gibney
10 Does globalization have an ethical problem?.................... 248
Ethan B. Kapstein
11 Conclusion: The task(s) of international ethics .................. 264
Nicholas Rengger
List of contributors.................................................... 279
Index................................................................... 282
Acknowledgements
This book is the product of a two-year research project conducted under
the auspices of the Peace and Governance Programme of the United
Nations University (Tokyo). It was made possible by a grant from the
Trust Fund for Interest on the Contribution to the United Nations Spe-
cialAccount.Inthecourseoftheproject,theeditorsandauthorsbenefited
from the hospitality offered by the Graduate Institute of International
Studies (Geneva) and the New School for Social Research (New York),
with the support of Sondra Farganis, for the holding of two workshops.
Atthefirstworkshop,inGeneva,AndrewClapham,IbrahimFall,Pierre-
Michel Fontaine, Franc¸oise He´ritier, Peider Koenz, Gangapersaud B.
Ramcharan, Pierre de Senarclens, and Fernando Teso´n helped to focus
on a number of key areas and issues. In Tokyo, Yoshie Sawada was in-
strumentalingivingadministrativesupportfortheimplementationofthe
project.Theeditorsandauthorswishheretothanktheseinstitutionsand
people for their support, as well as the anonymous reviewers of the
manuscriptfortheirveryusefulcommentsand,intheofficeoftheUnited
NationsUniversityPress,ManfredBoemeke,JanetBoileau,andthecopy
editor, Cherry Ekins, for their help for bringing this book to life.
Jean-Marc Coicaud and Daniel Warner
vii
1
Introduction: Reflections on the
extent and limits of contemporary
international ethics
Jean-Marc Coicaud and Daniel Warner
To introduce what is at stake in ethics and contemporary international
affairs requires us to focus on three sets of issues. First, since nowhere in
therestofthebookisethicsdefinedanddiscussedingeneralterms,afew
thoughts are needed to clarify what is meant in a broad sense. Second,
the authors will reflect upon some of the major elements shaping the
interplay between ethics and contemporary international affairs. Touch-
ing upon these two sets of issues will lay the ground for the examination,
throughout the book, of the ethical dimensions of the current interna-
tionalcontext.Finally,thischapterwillofferabriefoverviewofthemain
themes addressed and areas covered by the authors.
Some considerations on ethics in general
Ethics is concerned with being as close as possible to realizing the idea,
the positive idea, of what it is to be a human being. It is about ap-
proaching as closely as possible a sense of what is essentially human in
our nature. In thinking and acting in an ethical manner, the individual
makes himself a witness to what positively distinguishes humans: the
quest for dignity. As such, ethics is a search for a reconciled presence – a
reconciledpresencetooneself,presencetoothers,presencetotheworld.
This is also to say that ethics is not about the self in isolation. Ethics,
1