Ethics in International Practice: The Politics of Responsibility and Obligation

Session Submission Type: Featured Paper Panel: 30-minute Paper Presentations

Session Description

This panel brings together new perspectives on the politics of ethical arguments and principles in global politics. Each of the papers is at the forefront of a new literature that crosses the divide between International Relations and International Political Theory to analyze the role of normative questions in international practice. Each paper investigates the status of ethical arguments and principles in complex empirical domains.

Taken together, they address issues of responsibility and moral obligation. What responsibilities do states and international agencies have to those under their jurisdiction? How should humanitarian actors address ethical dilemmas that arise in these situations? What kinds of moral obligations do states actually invoke in public deliberations? Do these invocations shape the identities and practices of states? Can the state-centric discourse of responsibility be a compelling feature of global politics in a world of powerful corporations and non-state actors? How must the principles of responsibility be adjusted in our current moment?

The papers explore new empirical and normative terrain and as such they should inspire both new normative and positive theory. They reinvigorate the study of morality at a time when it has been challenged by the rise of transactional foreign policies and selfish nationalisms. They remind us of the enduring and inescapable importance of ethical questions in a disorderly and complex world marked by power inequalities and difficult political problems.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 17: International Collaboration

Individual Presentations

• Ethical Dilemmas and Emergency Food Assistance - Michelle Jurkovich, University of Massachusetts Boston

• Global Corporate Power’s Challenge to Order and Responsibility in World Politics - Swati Srivastava, Purdue University

• A Map and Theory of International Morality - Linnea Turco, The Ohio State University

Chair

• Bentley B. Allan Johns Hopkins University

Discussant

• Janina Dill University of Oxford