Political Theory and International Relations (ebook)

Argumento de Political Theory and International Relations (ebook)

In this revised edition of his 1979 classic Political Theory and International Relations, Charles Beitz rejects two highly influential conceptions of international theory as empirically inaccurate and theoretically misleading. In one, international relations is a Hobbesian state of nature in which moral judgments are entirely inappropriate, and in the other, states are analogous to persons in domestic society in having rights of autonomy that insulate them from external moral assessment and political interference. Beitz postulates that a theory of international politics should include a revised principle of state autonomy based on the justice of a state's domestic institutions, and a principle of international distributive justice to establish a fair division of resources and wealth among persons situated in diverse national societies.

"[Beitz] has succeeded in clarifying the agenda of moral debate concerning the relations of states and of their inhabitants."--Terry Nardin, American Political Science Review

"This important book deals a deadly blow to the facile assumptions that support the widespread belief that moral judgment is fundamentally inapplicable or inappropriate in matters of foreign policy and international relations."--David V. Edwards, Social Science Quarterly0Preface vii
Introduction 3
Part One. International Relations as a State of Nature 11
1. The Skepticism of the Realists 15
2. The Hobbesian Situation 27
3. International Relations as a State of Nature 35
4. The Basis of International Morality 50
5. From International Skepticism to the Morality of States 63
Part Two. The Autonomy of States 67
1 . State Autonomy and Individual Liberty 71
2. Nonintervention, Paternalism, and Neutrality 83
3. Self-determination 92
4. Eligibility, Boundaries, and Nationality 105
5. Economic Dependence 116
6. State Autonomy and Domestic Social justice 121
Part Three. International Distributive justice 125
1. Social Cooperation, Boundaries, and the Basis of justice 129
2. Entitlements to Natural Resources 136
3. Interdependence and Global Distributive justice 143
4. Contrasts between International and Domestic Society 154
5. The Rights of States 161
6. Applications to the Nonideal World 169
Conclusion 177
Afterword 185
Works Cited 221
Index 237