Ethics & International Affairs is pleased to announce the publication of its winter 2013 issue.
This issue will be free online for a limited time.
It features an essay by David Scheffer on curbing corporate tax avoidance; a roundtable on the ethics of rebellion, with contributions from James Turner Johnson, John Kelsay, Nigel Biggar, and Valerie Morkevicius; feature articles by Chris Armstrong on sovereign wealth funds and global justice and Margaret Moore on rights to land, expulsions, and corrective justice; a review essay by Edward Skidelsky on money, markets, and morality; and book reviews by Stephen M. Walt, Paul Wapner, Richard Shapcott, and Hugo Slim.
ESSAY
The Ethical Imperative of Curbing Corporate Tax Avoidance
David Scheffer
If the future of human rights is dependent on the capacity of the state to fulfill them, then one must focus on how the private sector interfaces with public values.
ROUNDTABLE: THE ETHICS OF REBELLION
Ad Fontes: The Question of Rebellion and Moral Tradition on the Use of Force [Full Text]
James Turner Johnson
On the older conception, the sovereign could use force against behavior that he understood as endangering the order, justice, and peace of his political community. But the division of Europe into Protestant and Catholic polities changed that.
Muslim Discourse on Rebellion
John Kelsay
Within Islamic thought, the judgments pertaining to rebels—known as ahkam al-bughat—constitute a subset of the larger category of "judgments pertaining to armed struggle," or ahkam al-jihad.
Christian Just War Reasoning and Two Cases of Rebellion: Ireland 1916–1921 and Syria 2011–Present
Nigel Biggar
Christian just war reasoning is conservative in its recognition that peaceful order is basic to all other forms of human flourishing, and so should not be disturbed needlessly. Nevertheless, it is morally critical in its awareness that sometimes peaceful order can be tyrannical or repressive to an extent that should not be borne.
Why We Need a Just Rebellion Theory
Valerie Morkevicius
Because these two influential streams of thought are in such tension with each other, our thinking about rebellion in the West tends to be piecemeal, driven more by gut reactions than by philosophical reasoning and careful political analysis. As a result, our responses to rebellion are scattered, unpredictable, and unfortunately often tragically misplaced.
FEATURES
Sovereign Wealth Funds and Global Justice
Chris Armstrong
Insofar as ethical debates have begun to touch on how the assets of sovereign wealth funds should be distributed, they have tended to ask how these should be distributed internally, to citizens of the countries in question. Sovereign wealth funds are the creation of sovereigns, after all, and we might think that the first duty of a sovereign is to its people. What, though, of the claims of global justice?
On Rights to Land, Expulsions, and Corrective Justice
Margaret Moore
This article examines the nature of the wrongs that are inflicted on individuals and groups who have been expelled from the land that they previously occupied, and asks what they might consequently be owed as a matter of corrective justice. Moore argues that there are three sorts of potential wrongs involved in such expulsions: being deprived of the moral right of occupancy; being denied collective self-determination; and having one's property rights violated.
REVIEW ESSAY
The Touch of Midas: Money, Markets, and Morality [Full Text]
Edward Skidelsky
Money, like God, injects infinity into human desires. To love it is to embark on a journey without end. Three new books testify to money's enduring power to fascinate and horrify.
REVIEWS [Full Text]
Special Responsibilities: Global Problems and American Power by Mlada Bukovansky, Ian Clark, Robyn Eckersley, Richard Price, Christian Reus-Smit, and Nicholas Wheeler
Review by Stephen M. Walt
Claims for "special responsibilities" are sometimes made to rally domestic support for some costly international action, or to exempt a great power from norms that weaker states are expected to follow.
A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change by Stephen M. Gardiner
Review by Paul Wapner
The challenges and complexities of the global, intergenerational, and theoretical tempests related to climate change conspire to create the perfect storm, which undermines moral action.
Recovering International Relations: The Promise of Sustainable Critique by Daniel J. Levine
Review by Richard Shapcott
Daniel Levine's goal is to "recover" IR's original vocation, or calling, and to reinvigorate it via the idea of "sustainable critique"—a project inspired by the work of Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School.
On Complicity and Compromise by Chiara Lepora and Robert E. Goodin
Review by Hugo Slim
Humanitarian action is regularly accused of prolonging wars or colluding with vicious regimes. But the profession has been strangely tardy in developing its operational ethics.
