Grad School Notes and Summary on Force and Statecraft (Chapter 12)

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Notes of Chapter 12 from Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Challenges of Our Time

Considerations - Ethical questions as fulcrum of transnational impact

            What is the legacy of the ethics of state sovereignty?

            Do transnational realities create cosmopolitan ethics?

Ethics and International Politics

Definition: “Judgments about human relations made on the basis of normative standards.”
- 3 standards:

            Limits on behavior

            Cognizance of consequences

            Responsibility for conduct

- Problem of the absence of ethical agreement

            F and S: state ‘realities’ vs. religious ‘aspirations’—deep historical roots

            But: enduring, transcendent & universal principles’ can be seen in many formulations other than religion

            For example: human security and human rights

           

- Theme throughout chapter: Can ends justify means?

- Full Challenge: reconciliation of should and can (ends and means), given uncertain outcomes

            Niebur: politics ‘where conscience and power meet’

            Problem of determining ethical action in conditions of uncertainty

- Raison d’etat as an ethics of state responsibility

            Prudence as restraint (vs. ends justify means)

            Maybe: challenge is not state vs. ethics but state based ethics vs. non state based   ethics.

            *Ends are results of the means (constructivist)

- Principle of non-agression

- Flip side is inviolability of sovereignty

            Ethical goal of delegitimating

- Concomitant criteria of jus in bello (justice in war)

            Protection of innocents

            Proportionality

            Basic of Geneva Protocol, CWC, landmine ban

            Presnece of norm despite absence of enforcement

- Jus in bello in the nuclear age: problems of deterrence

            oppositie of protection of the innocents

            absence of control or proportionality

- Jus ad bellum in a transnational world

            anticipatory self-defense in the age of terrorism

            human rights, humanitarian intervention

            distributive justice and migrations

            environmental issues

- Root of the problem: conflict of ethical foundations

            Hoffman: duties beyond borders, to individuals

            National security vs. human security

            State security vs. cosmopolitan security

*WRT enforcement of ethics—the realists would say that the strong do what they can on the basis of their might.  The strong set the norms.