Joel H. Rosenthal

Joel H. Rosenthal has served as president of Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs since 1995. He is also adjunct professor, New York University and chairman of the Bard College Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) program in New York City.

During his tenure as president, the Council has developed its Carnegie Ethics Studio, producing multimedia programs for television, radio, and web audiences worldwide. The Council has also established its Global Ethics Network of Fellows located in two dozen countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East.

The Council’s national and international outreach is led by television broadcasts on MHz Networks (with access to over 42 million households), C-Span Book TV, and CUNY TV (reaching the entire New York City metro area). The Council’s flagship publication, Ethics & International Affairs journal, is published by Cambridge University Press. Its articles have appeared over 1,100 times in hundreds of university syllabi in 28 countries.

As a scholar and teacher, Rosenthal has focused on ethics in U.S. foreign policy, with special emphasis on issues of war and peace, human rights, and pluralism. His first book, Righteous Realists (1991), is a study of Hans Morgenthau, George Kennan, and Reinhold Niebuhr, among other American realists. His edited volume, Ethics & International Affairs: A Reader (Georgetown University Press; 3rd edition, co-edited by Christian Barry), is a compilation of essays from major figures in the field and is widely used in college and university courses.

Rosenthal’s recent writing is a series of reflections on the moral dimensions of globalization, including essays on patriotism, the "global ethic," and the role of religion in democratic societies.

Rosenthal received his Ph.D. from Yale University and B.A. from Harvard University. In addition to his ongoing teaching duties, he lectures frequently at universities and public venues across the United States and around the world.  

See below for a complete list of resources by Dr. Rosenthal.

The following are especially recommended:

• WAMC Radio's Alan Chartock Interviews Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal
• Pillars of Ethics (Video)
• Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism (Transcript)
• Leadership as Practical Ethics (Paper)

Selected Publications:

• Civil Religion, Human Rights and International Relations: Connecting People Across Cultures and Traditions (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)
• Encyclopedia of Global Justice (Springer, 2011)
• Civil Liberties Under Pressure: The Historical Context, Speech at Maine Humanities Council, October 20, 2008
• Ethics and the Future of Conflict, with Albert C. Pierce and Anthony Lang (Prentice Hall, 2004)
• "A New Ethical Front", Foreign Policy, July/August 2002
• "Cycles of Moral Dialogue" in Edward Lehman, ed., Autonomy and Order (Roam and Littlefield, 2000)
• Ethics and International Affairs: A Reader, 2nd ed. (Georgetown University Press, 1999)
• "Henry Stimson's Clue", World Policy Journal, Fall 1997.
• "Ethics", Bruce W. Jentleson et al., Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 1996)
• Righteous Realists (Louisiana State University Press, 1991)

Related Multimedia

• Peace: What Is it Good for?
• In Search of a Global Ethic
• Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal on Global Ethics
• Rahim Kanani Interviews Joel Rosenthal
• WAMC Radio's Alan Chartock Interviews Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal
• Realism as Pragmatic Cooperation
• Afghanistan and Japan: Joel Rosenthal on Public Television
• Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism
• "The Current" Interviews Joel Rosenthal
• America and the World: Ethical Dimensions to Power
• Evaluating Justice and Reconciliation Efforts

Other Related Resources

• Drones: Legal, Ethical, and Wise?
• Saddam's Pistol, and Yours
• The Last Protestant?
• Ethics and War in Homer's Iliad
• Common Good and the Crisis of Globalization
• Is Peace Worth Fighting For?
• Can We Succeed Where Carnegie Failed?
• Obama and God
• Leadership as Practical Ethics
• Revisiting Iran?
• IN THE SHADOW OF HADITHA: Essential Resources on Ethics in War
• Accountability: How to Treat Unlawful Combatants
• In Memoriam: James Chace
• New Rules for War?
• Ask the Candidates--and Ourselves
• From the Margins to the Mainstream: A Blueprint for Ethics and International Affairs
• From Andrew Carnegie to Hans Morgenthau
• Shall We Call It An Empire?
• A New Turn in the New War
• Threats Beyond the Headlines
• The Politics of Moral Absolutes
• Course Syllabus: Ethics and International Affairs
• The Ethics of the "New War" in the Aftermath of 9/11
• The Ethics of the New War
• The United States: The Moral Nation?
• Justice and the World Economy
• Willing to Kill But Not to Die?
• Making Peace: Dilemmas of Reconciliation
• Dilemmas of Humanitarian and Peace Operations
• What the Sages Say
• What Constitutes an Ethical Approach to International Affairs?
• The Withdrawal From UNESCO: International Organizations and the U.S. Role (Case Study #10)

Last Updated: May 06, 2013