Ethics & International Affairs is pleased to announce the publication of the second issue in EIA's 30th anniversary volume.
This issue includes an essay by John R. Emery on the humanitarian applications of drones; a roundtable on the role of human rights in the UN's post-2015 development agenda, with contributions by Malcolm Langford, Sandra Fredman, Jaakko Kuosmanen, Meghan Campbell, Kate Donald, and Sally-Anne Way; features by Jacqueline Best on central bank accountability and Cristina Lafont on the importance of the "human" in human rights; an exchange discussing Patti Tamara Lenard's article on democracies and the power to revoke citizenship (EIA 30.1), with contributions by Elizabeth F. Cohen, Ben Herzog, and David Miller, and with a reply by Patti Tamara Lenard; and book reviews.
ESSAY
The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Humanitarian Drones
John R. Emery
The debate about drones has been slow to shift from targeted killings to the emerging category of the humanitarian drone. As technology and innovations advance, there remain critical ethical tensions associated with drones, even in their humanitarian use.
ROUNDTABLE: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
Lost in Transformation? The Politics of the Sustainable Development Goals
Malcolm Langford
The new Sustainable Development Goals agenda may be big, but is it truly transformative? This essay explores two common critiques: that states have created an agenda more decorative than operational, and that political compromises could undermine the strength of the agreement.
Transformative Equality: Making the Sustainable Development Goals Work for Women
Sandra Fredman, Jaakko Kuosmanen, and Meghan Campbell
This essay makes the case for the continued development of a human rights-based approach to the Sustainable Development Goals that will contribute to achieving gender equality and women's empowerment.
Equality as a Global Goal
Edward Anderson
The Millennium Development Goals were often criticized for having a "blind spot" with regard to inequality and social injustice—possibly even contributing to entrenched inequalities. This essay examines the extent to which this criticism has been addressed in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals: A Lost Opportunity?
Kate Donald and Sally-Anne Way
This essay examines how the "politics of accountability" played out during the post-2015 negotiations on the SDGs and how this influenced the resulting compromise in the final outcome document.
FEATURES
Rethinking Central Bank Accountability in Uncertain Times
Jacqueline Best
Central banks have gained considerable authority since the 2008 financial crisis, using highly unorthodox tools to stimulate the economy and taking a greater role in financial regulation. In such a context, we need to develop a more robust form of accountability.
Should We Take the "Human" Out of Human Rights? Human Dignity in a Corporate World
Cristina Lafont
Recognizing corporations as legal persons with human rights may have a detrimental effect on the human rights of natural persons. If this legal development continues, human rights practice may be facing two incommensurable paths.
EXCHANGE: DEMOCRACIES AND THE POWER TO REVOKE CITIZENSHIP
When Democracies Denationalize: The Epistemological Case against Revoking Citizenship
Elizabeth F. Cohen
What makes denationalization problematic for democratic theorists are not simply the procedures used to impose this penalty or its consequences, but also the permanence of this type of punishment.
The Democratic Roots of Expatriation
Ben Herzog
Patti Tamara Lenard's analysis of the right to revoke citizenship in democratic states overlooks one legitimate motivation behind expatriation: the aim to regulate national allegiance.
Democracy, Exile, and Revocation
David Miller
For those who set their faces against the implicit contract that democracy embodies, revocation procedures incorporating strong human rights safeguards may still be justified.
Patti Tamara Lenard Replies
Patti Tamara Lenard
Revocation laws are adopted among many tools to fight the threat of terrorism. Nevertheless, revocation of citizenship remains incompatible with democratic citizenship as a matter of principle.
REVIEWS
Scientists at War: The Ethics of Cold War Weapons Research
Sarah Bridger
Review by Jacques E. C. Hymans
Historian Sarah Bridger explores the ambivalent role of scientists in U.S. policy debates over national defense issues from the 1950s to the 1980s. This is a significant contribution to our understanding of the evolution of the scientific professions in the shadow of the national security state.
Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights
Alan Patten
Review by Daniel Weinstock
Alan Patten's Equal Recognition is the most significant systematic attempt at deriving a theory of minority rights from the basic tenets of liberalism since Will Kymlicka's Multicultural Citizenship was published over twenty years ago.
Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ Claims Shape International Relations
Edited by Manuela Lavinas Picq and Markus Thiel
Review by Ryan Thoreson
The essays in Sexualities in World Politics argue that LGBTQ perspectives are deeply enriching for international relations theory. As the rights of LGBTQ people increasingly take hold as foreign policy concerns, these perspectives are long overdue for serious consideration by IR theorists.
