Can Institutions Have Responsibilities? Collective Moral Agency and International Relations

by Erskine, Toni

• ISBN13: 9781403917201
• ISBN10: 1403917205
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-02-07
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

'Something must be done' is a cry that is often heard in international relations. Situations are deemed intolerable, and calls to relieve suffering and hold the guilty accountable are frequently made. But who, or what, is the 'someone' who must act or can be called to account? Individual human beings are generally understood to be the bearers of moral burdens, duties and responsibilities. But individuals, acting only as individuals, can do little to alleviate famine, to protect the environment, or to rescue those threatened with massacre. Collective actors, on the other hand, including states, multinational corporations and the United Nations, arguably possess capacities to address injustice, respond to crises, and, indeed, cause harm in ways that individuals on their own cannot. Can such institutions be considered moral agents? If so, according to what criteria do they qualify as such, and under what conditions can duties be assigned to them, or blame attributed? The essays presented in Can Institutions Have Responsibilities? respond to these challenging questions from a variety of perspectives and tackle 'hard cases' such as the Kosovo Campaign and the genocide in Rwanda. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Toni Erskine is Lecturer in International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	vii
Acknowledgements	x
Introduction
Making Sense of Responsibility' in International Relations: Key Questions and Concepts	1	(158)
Toni Erskine
Part I Identifying Moral Agents: States, Governments, and 'International Society'
1 Assigning Responsibilities to Institutional Moral Agents: The Case of States and 'Quasi-States'	19	(22)
Toni Erskine
2 Moral Responsibility and the Problem of Representing the State	41	(10)
David Runciman
3 Moral Agency and International Society: Reflections on Norms, the UN, the Gulf War, and the Kosovo Campaign	51	(18)
Chris Brown
Part II Obstacles and Alternative Questions
4 Collective Moral Agency and the Political Process	69	(15)
Frances V. Harbour
5 Constitutive Theory and Moral Accountability: Individuals, Institutions, and Dispersed Practices	84	(16)
Mervyn Frost
6 Wien Agents Cannot Act: International Institutions as 'Moral Patients'	100	(19)
Cornelia Navari
Part III Hard Cases: Assigning Duties
7 NATO and the Individual Soldier as Moral Agents with Reciprocal Duties: Imbalance in the Kosovo Campaign	119	(19)
Paul Cornish and Frances V. Harbour
8 The Anti-Sweatshop Movement: Constructing Corporate Moral Agency in the Global Apparel Industry	138	(21)
Rebecca DeWinter
Part IV Hard Cases: Apportioning Blame
9 The Responsibility of Collective External Bystanders in Cases of Genocide: The French in Rwanda	159	(24)
Daniela Kroslak
10 The United Nations and the Fall of Srebrenica: Meaningful Responsibility and International Society	183	(24)
Anthony Lang, Jr.
Part V Conclusions
11 On 'Good Global Governance', Institutional Design, and the Practices of Moral Agency	207	(11)
Nicholas Rengger
12 Global Justice: Aims, Arrangements, and Responsibilities	218	(20)
Christian Barry
Index	238