Ethics
and
International Relations
Towards more ethical global
relations?
Structure
1. What is ethics?
2. What is international relations?
3. How are the two related?
What is ethics?
Ethics has to do with questions of
right and wrong
Duties or obligations
Rules or laws
What is ethics?
Ethical questions are normative questions.
What ought to be done?
Those who ask this question look at the
world from
‘The moral point of view.’
Why be moral?
Why act ethically?
Why look at the world from the moral
point of view?
The Rejection of Ethics
The doctrine of ‘nihilism.’
The doctrine known as ‘Realism’ in IR theory
e.g. E.H. Carr in his work on the Twenty Year Crisis
– international morality is the morality of the Great
Powers
What is realist about realism?
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Avoids the ‘hopeless utopianism’
of idealism
Based on empirical analysis of
the human condition and the
way the world works
Some aspects of behaviour are
universal and eternal.
7
Theories of Ethics
Why are certain actions right or
wrong?
How do I decide what ought to be
done?
Theories of Ethics
Two main theories
Ethical Deontologism
Ethical Consequentialism
Ethical Deontologism
Usually associated with Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804)
But can also be found in Hugo Grotius (15831645)
The Laws of War and Peace (1625)
And in Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics (384322BCE)
Deontological thinking
Some actions intrinsically wrong.
E.g. murder
The proposition ‘murder is wrong’ is
a logically necessary truth, like
‘2+2=4.’’
To concede that an action ‘X’ is an
act of murder, whilst arguing that
it is nonetheless one which ought
to be performed (that it is ‘right’ or
‘ethically permissible’ to perform
it) is to contradict oneself.
Such actions ought never to be
committed, no matter what the
circumstances.
Deontological thinking
Why are these actions wrong/unjust?
The principle of reciprocity
Kant’s ‘categorical imperative.’
‘Always act such that one can at the
same time will the maxim of your
action to be a universal law.’
e.g. murder or theft could not be made a universal law
Deontological thinking in traditional
humanitarian principles
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Needs-based humanitarianism
Relief of suffering
ICRC- 7 principles of humanitarian
action
• humanity
• impartiality
• neutrality
• independence
• voluntary service
• unity
• universality
ICRC’s principles are based on
deontological ethics
ICRC principle of Humanity

Deontological ethics
• i.e. human as human being outside belief
system
• being concerned to alleviate suffering of any
human irrespective of their race, ethnicity,
social class, religion, politics or other beliefs
• ‘not affected by any political or military
consideration’ - Pictet, 1958, p. 96
 non-judgmental, not subjective i.e. not
deserving v undeserving
 to relieve suffering not to reform (society or
individual)
Ethical Consequentialism
There are no actions which are absolutely right
or wrong.
Everything depends on the circumstances,
especially the consequences of performing
one action rather than another.
How much ‘good’ does the action bring into
the world?
‘The priority of the good over the right.’
Utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
The ‘principle of utility.’
‘Always act so as to promote the
greatest happiness of the greatest
number.’
‘Happiness’ = ‘pleasure’ and not ‘pain.’
Is Utilitarianism a moral
doctrine?
Ethical deontologists like Kant would say that it
is not, as it could be used to justify actions
which in their view are intrinsically wrong and
ought never to be performed.
But not everybody is an ethical deontologist.
Utilitarianism is generally accepted as being
one of the major ethical traditions in the
history of Western philosophy.
Ends and means in ethics
Does the end justify the means?
Some have said ‘yes’ to this question.
E.g. Niccolo Macchiavelli (1469-1527)
The Prince (1513)
Consequentialist Thinking in New
Humanitarianism
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Rights-based humanitarianism
Traditional v New Humanitarian
principles
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Deontological v consequentialist
Needs-based v rights-based
Neutralists v solidarists
Consequentialist Thinking in
Humanitarianism’s expanded remit
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‘no longer reserved for the provision
of independent and impartial relief to
victims of conflict… it now includes
the attempt to advance human
rights, increase access to medicines,
further development, promote
democracy and (to) build responsible
states’ Slim, 1997, p. 249
International Relations and
International Ethics
1990s and end of the Cold War
Potential for
- more cosmopolitan global political
community
- new role for international organisations,
international law & human rights
- pro-active UN Security Council & UN
bodies e.g Boutros Boutros Ghali’s Agenda
for Peace, 1993
International ethics and
international law
International arena as Hobbesian ‘state of nature’
i.e. condition of war? NOT for Continental School
of Natural Law
- Samuel Pufendorf (1632-94)
The Laws of Nature and of Nations (1672)
- Christian Wolff (1679-1754),
Natural Law and the Law of Nations (1740-1749)
- Emerich de Vattel (1714-1767),
The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law Applied to the
Conduct and to the Affairs of Nations and of Sovereigns (1758).
- Kant, Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795).
International ethics and international
law
The international arena is not as Hobbes
portrays a ‘state of nature.’
It is a condition of ‘peace’ regulated by law –
a moral law.
This is the ‘law of nature.’
It is also the ‘law of nations,’
i.e. ‘international law.’
Law of wars/IHL
Jus ad bellum
The justice/injustice of going to war
Jus in bello
Justice/injustice in warfare
Jus post bellum
Justice after war
e.g. Saturation bombing during WWII & the
dropping of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki
and Hiroshima
Ethics and IR in the Global Era
Cosmopolitan ethical ideals
Two Dimensions
Global Distributive Justice
Global Rectificatory Justice
Global Distributive Justice
Global poverty and wealth
distribution:
The net worth of the 358 richest
people in the world was then [mid
1990s] found to be “equal to the
combined income of the poorest 45
per cent of the world’s population –
2.3 billion people.”
David Harvey, The Limits to Capital (2006), p.
xi
Global Rectificatory Justice
One law, which is natural law
Natural rights, or human rights
Ought to regulate the conduct of both states
and individuals
Global Rectificatory Justice
In a global political community, human rights abuses
are the legitimate concern of everyone.
In certain circumstances ‘intervention’ by one state,
or a supra-national institution like the UN, in the
affairs of another is justified, even though it
infringes the ‘autonomy’ or ‘sovereignty’ of the
state in question.
E.g. Bosnia (1992-95)
Rwanda (1994)
Iraq (2003-)
E.g. ICTY, ICTR, ICC
Kosovo War 1999 as humanitarian
war
improving humanitarian situation?
 preventing genocide?
 improving human
 rights?
 promoting peace
and
ethnic relations?
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International ethics and
humanitarian intervention

The Responsibility to Project: Report
of the International Commission on
Intervention and State Sovereignty,
2001
• Changing international
in UN Charter 1945 on
in the internal affairs of
• humanitarian concerns
national sovereignty
• expansion
of
idea
jurisdiction
law on principle
non-interference
states
paramount over
of
universal
Controversies over international
ethics today
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Evolving international criminal law &
R2P expanding humanitarian military
intervention
Prohibitions on use of force v rights
to use force
‘the concept of international right becomes meaningless if
interpreted as a right to go to war. For this would make it a
right to determine what is lawful not by means of
universally valid external laws, but by one-sided maxims
backed up by physical force’ Kant, Perpetual Peace.
E.H. Carr, Twenty Year Crisis on
international morality
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theories of international morality =
‘product of dominant nations or
groups of nations’
‘unconscious reflections of national
policy
based
on
a
particular
interpretation of national interest at
a particular time’
relation of norms and power?
Controversies over international
ethics today
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‘I certainly cannot imagine the West
conceding that they too should be
subject to these norms of
humanitarian military intervention on
human rights grounds’ David Rieff,
Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism
in Crisis, p. 282.
Crisis of humanitarian ethics
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‘The political nature of humanitarian aid, coupled
with the new context of insecurity, militarisation,
privatisation and the merging of developmental
and security aims, has created dilemmas that will
plague NGOs' humanitarian programming for
years. How NGOs adapt themselves and make
the decision whether to abandon or adapt
humanitarian principles will be a crucial factor in
the future positioning of NGOs within the
emerging system of global governance.’ Barbara
Brubacher,
http://www.globalpolicy.corg/ngos/aid/2004/092
8neutrality.htm