The Carnegie Council announces the release of the Summer 2005 issue of Ethics & International Affairs (go to table of contents). The decision to invade Iraq more than two years ago marks both a turning point in the Bush administration's foreign policy and the conduct of international relations. In this special issue, entitled "Ethics and the Use of Force after Iraq," scholars reflect on the decision-making that led to the invasion, the conduct of the war and occupation, and the difficult decisions in Darfur and elsewhere that must be made in its aftermath. Fernando R. Tesón argues that the war in Iraq was morally justified as a humanitarian intervention; Terry Nardin responds that "ending tyranny" is not a suitable criterion for humanitarian war and its costs. In his examination of Security Council debates, Alex J. Bellamy contends that inaction in Darfur can partly be explained by the war in Iraq. Michael Wesley offers an analysis of phases of humanitarian intervention since the 1980s, arguing that current efforts at "governance" interventions provide the likeliest conditions for developing a normative framework for all intervention. And Anthony Burke and Jean Bethke Elshtain debate the merits and demerits of current liberal attempts to justify the use of force. "Passionate moral justifications for and criticisms of the war in Iraq have always been front-and-center in public discussion of it. But we need deep critical reflection on which of these justifications and criticisms are sound, and what their consequences may be," says Paige Arthur, deputy editor of Ethics & International Affairs. "These authors offer that reflection, as well as a diverse set of approaches to the problems we now face in Iraq and beyond."
Also featured in this issue:
- Steven Lee critiques Allen Buchanan and Robert O. Keohane's proposal for institutions that would sanction preventive war, which appeared in the Winter 2004 issue of Ethics & International Affairs. Buchanan and Keohane respond.
- Books reviewed include Michael Ignatieff's The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, reviewed by Jedediah Purdy, and Michael Walzer's Arguing about War, reviewed by David Rodin.
Ethics & International Affairs is the flagship publication of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. Recent issues have explored global economic justice, American empire, preventive war, and the Kyoto Protocol. Go to Ethics & International Affairs backlist.
