Book Reviews
- "National Responsibility and Global Justice" by David Miller [Full Text]
| 09/11/2009
Miller builds on his seminal work on national identity and special duties to co-nationals to carve out a position on such issues as global poverty and immigration that is distinct from both the recent stream of cosmopolitan theories and a narrow "citizens-only" account of obligations. - "What's Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It" by Thomas G. Weiss [Full Text]
| 09/11/2009
Drawing on his own UN experience and studying it from outside, Weiss clears away a lot of the debris of superficial critiques to uncover the deeper explanations for why the more world problems become interconnected and global in scope the less the UN seems able to cope with them. - "On Torture" Edited by Thomas C. Hilde [Full Text]
| 09/11/2009
This edited collection is an excellent addition to the literature on the torture policy of the Bush administration during its war on terror. The contributors explore the history and practice of torture beyond the U.S. and what these non-American examples say about the U.S role in this area. - "The Rise of the Global Imaginary: Political Ideologies from the French Revolution to the Global War on Terror" by Manfred B. Steger [Full Text]
| 09/11/2009
Faced with the political, economic, and social challenges of a globalized planet, are we bereft of any coherent political guideposts or do we still possess realistic and robust idea-systems? Steger, a prolific scholar of globalization, adopts a cautiously optimistic version of the second position.