Review: Ethics & International Affairs
| Published date | 01 December 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200906400427 |
| Date | 01 December 2009 |
| Author | Brent J. Steele |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| Reviews |
| 1172 | Autumn 2009 | International Journal |
ETHICS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
A Reader, third edition
Joel H. Rosenthal and Christian Barry, editors
Washington, DC: Georgetown University Pre ss, 2009. 352pp, US$34.95
paper
ISBN 978-1-58901-272-1
This is the third edition of the popular
Ethics & International Affairs
readers.
Ten years have passed since the second edition, and as scholar Chris Brown
states on the back of the latest edition, the editors have “extensively revised”
the collection. Like its forerunners, it collects recent articles from the 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 the topic (Michael Smith), the moral basis for
intervention (Terry Nardin), the 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 the ethics of immigration laws (Joseph H. Carens).
Part IV, on glo bal economic justi ce, includes chap ters 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 the journal, note that
their selections are neither the “greatest ‘hits’ of international ethics, nor the
greatest ‘misses’ of global public policy,” nor do they necessarily address “the
most pres sing” issues. Rather, the selections are intended to be
“conversations…taken as invitations to normative, empir ical discussions,”
and to ultimately balance between “supply[ing] a volume fit for the ethics
classroom, and to reflect the growing maturity of the field” of international
ethics (x).
If these are the 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
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