Ethics and International Affairs: Extent and Limits

Ethics and International Affairs explores the extent and limits of contemporary international ethics and examines the ways in which the international community has responded to some of the most crucial challenges since the end of the Cold War. At the centre of the book is a discussion of how responsibility is viewed at individual, national, and international levels when facing the problems of human rights, humanitarian intervention, environmental issues, considerations of gender, international economic justice, matters of war and peace, and the plight of refugees. While some authors revisit the conception and interpretation of international ethics, others focus on the necessity to push for the better implementation and improvement of existing international norms. The result is an examination of how ethics are defined in today's specific contexts and how an understanding of the ethical may be developed from the articulation of the dilemmas encountered. The issues tackled in the book were already topical over ten years ago, at the time of the first edition. In 2013, the year of publication for this second edition, following the tumultuous decade of the early 2000s, they have only gained in importance.