Politicising Ethics in International Relations: Cosmopolitanism as Hospitality

by Baker; Gideon

• ISBN13: 9780415561778
• ISBN10: 0415561779
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-06
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The ethics of hospitality #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; the welcome of the foreigner #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; is implied in all moral debate in international relations ranging from questions of asylum to those of humanitarian intervention. Why then has there been so little reflection on hospitality in the study of international relations to date? Seeking to correct this striking omission, and making an important and original contribution to debates about ethics in international relations in the process, Baker outlines a theory of cosmopolitanism as hospitality which goes beyond existing cosmopolitanisms. He argues that we must understand cosmopolitanism not as the pursuit of a world in which there are no more foreigners but as the welcome of the foreigner. However, though hospitality calls for a welcome, there is always a decision on the welcome to be made. Cosmopolitanism as hospitality is therefore always as much a politics as it is an ethics. Addressing issues of central concern for those who seek to understand our obligations to strangers, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, security studies, ethics, and political and international theory.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vi
Introduction	p. 1
Towards a genealogy of hospitality	p. 15
Spectres of hospitality	p. 27
Hospitality in the law of nature and nations	p. 38
Kantian hospitality	p. 60
Hospitality in Emmanuel Levinas's Totality and Infinity	p. 73
Cosmopolitanism as hospitality	p. 90
Conclusion: the politics of hospitality versus the biopolitics of security	p. 115
Notes	p. 119
Bibliography	p. 128
Index	p. 135
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