Ethics & International Affairs articles from April 2002

Ethics & International Affairs archives from April 2002

Editor's note.(Editorial)
April 1, 2002... Political argument is sometimes purely strategic, with advocates of opposing positions differing only on the best means to achieve shared objectives. But political debate can often also involve competing claims about appropriate objectives, as...

Identifying limits on a borderless map.(The new war: what rules apply)
April 1, 2002... Two requirements have governed my thinking about an appropriate response to the attacks of September 11: the urgent need for action that would greatly reduce the threat of future mega-terrorist incidents, and the necessity of recognizing the...

The law's response to September 11.(The new war: what rules apply)
April 1, 2002... It is hard to watch a society's political virtues mocked as weakness by an uncomprehending foe. The fireball attacks of September 11 against the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon consumed the lives of more than 3,000 ordinary...

The laws of war: a military view.(The new war: what rules apply)
April 1, 2002... I served as a lieutenant in Vietnam. In June 1969, after being in the country for about ten days, I saw my first combat action and it was typically confusing. My platoon was on a reconnaissance mission as part of a larger force when some...

The "war" on terrorism: a cultural perspective.(The new war: what rules apply)
April 1, 2002... Clearly, Osama bin Laden does not subscribe to any international rules in his unholy struggle against the world. The fatwa (religious ruling) issued in February 1998 by the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders--the network...

The style of the new war: making the rules as we go along.(The new war: what rules apply)
April 1, 2002... It is curious to note the evolution of discussions about the moral and legal rules that apply in the fight against terrorism. Immediately after September 11, when it was clear that the United States was going to focus its new war within...

Comprehending "evil": challenges for law and policy.
April 1, 2002... "The problem of evil will be the fundamental question of postwar intellectual life--as death became the fundamental problem after the last war." --HANNAH ARENDT (1) "The conviction that everything that happens on earth must be...

Justice after war.
April 1, 2002... Sadly, there are few restraints on the endings of wars. There has never been an international treaty to regulate war's final phase, and there are sharp disagreements regarding the nature of a just peace treaty. There are, by contrast,...

The moral basis of humanitarian intervention.
April 1, 2002... If one person is able to save another and does not save him, he transgresses the commandment, Neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor. MAIMONIDES (1) To those for whom the greatest threat to the future of...

NGO strategies for promoting corporate social responsibility.
April 1, 2002... The current era of corporate globalization has not altered the fundamental nature of the struggle for human rights, but it has shifted its context and created new opportunities and challenges for the global human rights movement. Since the...

Corporate codes of conduct and the success of globalization.
April 1, 2002... THE BLESSINGS OF GLOBALIZATION A strong argument can be made that globalization and the unrestricted flow of capital, goods, and services lead to the creation of wealth and prosperity among all participating nations. Comparative advantage...

More than charity: cosmopolitan alternatives to the "Singer Solution".(Debate: global poverty relief)
April 1, 2002... THE POLITICS OF GLOBAL POVERTY Nothing is more politically important to think about, and act upon, than global poverty relief. Numbers can mask the human faces of poverty, but they do bring out its scale: Today, any day, 30,000 children...

Poverty, facts, and political philosophies: response to "more than charity".(Debate: global proverty relief)
April 1, 2002... Andrew Kuper begins his critique of my views on poverty by accepting the crux of my moral argument: The interests of all persons ought to count equally, and geographic location and citizenship make no intrinsic difference to the rights and...

Facts, theories, and hard choices: reply to Peter Singer.(Debate: global poverty relief)
April 1, 2002... The main thrust of my argument was that ad hoc suggestions of charity cannot replace a systematic and theoretically informed approach to poverty relief. Charitable donation sometimes helps--and sometimes harms--but is no general solution to...

Achieving the best outcome: final rejoinder.(Debate: global poverty relief)
April 1, 2002... The one central point in all my writing on this topic, from"" Famine, Affluence and Morality" onward, has been that the failure of people in the rich nations to make any significant sacrifices in order to assist people who are dying from...

Democracy, diversity, and boundaries.(reviews of five books)(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism, Brian Barry (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 416 pp., $36.95 cloth. Democracy and the Foreigner, Bonnie Honig (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 216...

Third worldism redux.(The Assassination of Lumumba)(Farntz Fanon)(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... The Assassination of Lumumba, Ludo De Witte, trans. Ann Wright and Renee Fenby (New York: Verso, 2001), 257 pp., $27 cloth. Frantz Fanon, David Macey (New York: Picador, 2001), 656 pp., $40 cloth. Lumumba, Fanon"--Jean-Paul Sartre...

Global governance and genocide in Rwanda.(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda, Michael Barnett (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), 240 pp., $25 cloth. Peacemaking in Rwanda: The Dynamics of Failure, Bruce D. Jones (Boulder, Col.: Lynne Rienner, 200, 209...

Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry.(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Michael Ignatieff, ed. Amy Gutmann (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 208 pp., $19.95 cloth. THIS BOOK, a collection of essays and responses, confirms Michael Ignatieff's reputation as one of the most interesting commentators...

In Our Own Best Interest: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All.(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... William F. Schulz (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), 256 pp., $25 cloth. WILLIAM SCHULZ, the executive director of Amnesty International USA, argues in this book that Americans have strong practical or prudential interests in defending human...

The Graves are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe and Power in the Heart of Africa.(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Bill Berkeley (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 309 pp., $27.50 cloth. The Graves Are Not Yet Full is about "the role of political leaders in fomenting civil conflict" whether we choose to call it "tribalism," "nationalism," or...

Explorations in African Political Thought.(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Teodros Kiros, ed. (New York: Routledge, 2001) 214 pp., $75.00 cloth, $22.95 paper. FIFTY YEARS AGO the peoples of the African continent were in a state of political ferment. Nationalist agitation had stirred political sensibilities. It...

Breakthrough International Negotiation.(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Michael Watkins and Susan Rosegrant, with a foreword by Shimon Peres (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001), 346 pp., $40 cloth. THIS VOLUME PROVIDES an excellent conceptual framework for analyzing four post-Cold War conflicts: the United...

Multilateralism and U.S. Foreign Policy: Ambivalent Engagement.(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Stewart Patrick and Shepard Forman, eds. (Boulder, Col.: Lynne Rienner, 2002), 509 pp., $59-95 cloth, $22.50 paper. THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION recently has shown some touchiness about charges o unilateralism in its handling of international...

Governing for the Environment: Global Problems, Ethics and Democracy.(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Brendan Gleeson and Nicholas Low, eds. (Hampshire: Palgrave Publishers Ltd., 2001), 255 pp., $65 cloth. In 2001, the 11,000 citizens of the archipelago of Tuvalu--a small island state consisting of nine islands in the Pacific...

Boundaries and Allegiances.(Boundaries and Allegiances: Problems of Justice and Responsibility in Liberal Thought)(Book Review)
April 1, 2002... Samuel Scheffler (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 221 pp., $29.95 cloth. Boundaries and Allegiances: Problems of Justice and Responsibility in Liberal Thought is a collection of eleven of Samuel Scheffler's previously published...