Normative Theory in International Relations: A Pragmatic Approach

by Molly Cochran

• ISBN13: 9780521630504
• ISBN10: 0521630509
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-01-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Normative theory in international relations, as it is discussed at present in the framework of the cosmopolitan/communitarian debate, is in a condition of stasis. Cosmopolitan and communitarian positions are generally assumed to be irreconcilable, with no means available for reaching conclusions on ethical questions in world politics. This book pursues three lines of inquiry. First, it aims to examine the nature and the extent of the impasse within this debate. Second, it re-evaluates whether the cosmopolitan/communitarian dichotomy offers a complete picture of the most pressing issues at stake within normative international relations theory. The book suggests that a more refined focus on epistemology and questions of foundationalism and antifoundationalism is necessary. Third, it constructs an argument for a new normative approach to international ethics which draws from the tradition of American pragmatism and is sensitive to the wider picture of concerns raised in the course of the book.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
Abbreviations	xiv
Preface	xv
Introduction	1	(20)
Part I: Evaluating the impasse
Cosmopolitanism: Rawlsian approaches to international distributive justice	21	(31)
Communitarianism: Michael Walzer and international justice	52	(26)
Beyond the impasse? Hegelian method in the cosmopolitanism of Andrew Linklater and the communitarianism of Mervyn Frost	78	(43)
Part II: Confronting the impasse
Poststructuralist antifoundationalism, ethics, and normative IR theory	121	(23)
Neo-pragmatist antifoundationalism, ethics, and normative IR theory	144	(29)
Part III: International ethics as pragmatic critique
International ethics as pragmatic critique: a pragmatic synthesis of the work of John Dewey and Richard Rorty	173	(39)
Facilitating moral inclusion: feminism and pragmatic critique	212	(34)
From moral imagination to international public spheres: the political and institutional implications of pragmatic critique	246	(27)
Conclusion	273	(8)
References	281	(11)
Index	292