Ethics and Foreign Policy

The promotion of human rights, the punishment of crimes against humanity, the use of force with respect to humanitarian intervention: these are some of the complex issues facing governments in recent years. The contributors to this book offer a theoretical and empirical approach to these issues. Three leading normative theorists first explore what an 'ethical foreign policy' means. Four contributors then look at potential or actual instruments of ethical foreign policy-making: the export of democracy, non-governmental organisations, the International Criminal Court, and bottom-up public pressure on governments. Finally, three case studies examine more closely developments in the foreign policies of the US, the UK, and the European Union, to assess the difficulties raised by the incorporation of ethical considerations into foreign policy.

Reviews & endorsements

'Through a series of insightful, succinct, and thought-provoking reflections on the meaning and importance of ethics in foreign policy, this volume combines sophisticated elaboration of historical and theoretical ideas with an intriguing snapshot of the landscape of current issues and events. While explicitly adopting the stance of a foreign policy analyst rather than that of an ethical theorist, the book has managed to successfully balance the theoretical with the concrete, and has kept ethical complexities accessible to a wide audience.' Rosalind Irwin, Millenium: Journal of International Studies

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Product details

• Date Published: September 2001
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521009300
• length: 236 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 14 mm
• weight: 0.35kg
• availability: Available