The previous chapter tried to show that cosmopolitanism can accommodate the exercise of partial concern among compatriots, and that the partiality of patriotism can be reconciled with the impartiality of cosmopolitan justice. This reconciliation is best achieved, I argued, by confining the scope of patriotism within the framework of cosmopolitan justice, rather than by limiting our cosmopolitan commitments against the patriotic ideal as conventionally understood and practiced. This subordinating of compatriot partiality to the principles of cosmopolitan justice sits well with our considered views about the relationship between justice and partial concern in more familiar social contexts (e.g., in the context of domestic society).

This subordination of patriotism to cosmopolitanism does not mean that patriotism is reducible to cosmopolitan principles (in the sense that the worth of patriotism is understood to derive ultimately from these principles). If it did, defenders of patriotism could rightly accuse the cosmopolitan position of failing to take seriously into account the moral significance of patriotic ties and concern. But it does mean that the practice of patriotism ought to be limited by the parameters defined by cosmopolitan justice. And, as mentioned, taking patriotic commitments to be constrainable by cosmopolitan principles does not mean that patriotic commitments are to be reducible to cosmopolitan principles.

We, therefore, have a general structure for reconciling cosmopolitanism and patriotism that does not compromise the global egalitarian commitments of cosmopolitanism.