| This dissertation forges new links between the leading contemporary ideas in international relations and in political theory. Beginning from the foundational analysis of international politics by the "traditional realists", Hans Morgenthau, E. H. Carr, and others, a close study is made of realism's profound diagnosis (but shallow treatment) of the problem of realpolitik, the central moral problem of a Hobbesian international system. The moral state loses, so the moral statesman, obliged to the interests of his state, is barred from following the dictates of a cosmopolitan morality. The relationship between politics and morality was originally realism's principal concern, but modern realists have abandoned moral inquiry and sought instead a rationalist solution to the problem of realpolitik through cooperation theory. "Rational", i.e. utility-maximizing, states can become habituated to following a set of norms, or regimes, through which an international society is developed. This dissertation argues that regimes are indeed crucial to the possibility of moral practice in international society, but that they cannot themselves be understood except as moral phenomena.; From a realist understanding of the problems of international morality and an outline of a solution to them, the dissertation turns to the construction of a political theory of international relations on liberal foundations. Applying John Rawls' method of moral inquiry through reflective equilibrium to international society, a convergence is sought between an ideal-theoretic cosmopolitanism based on the fundamental liberal conception of Man as rational, free, moral, and equal, and an inductivist communitarianism drawing on the morality actually practised in international society. This method avoids both the abstract idealism rightly criticized by students of international relations, and the moral relativism and scepticism rightly condemned by political philosophers, finding a convergence between principles of international justice derived from first principles and social norms--regimes--embedded in the practices of international society. This convergence is explored with reference to five basic principles of international ethics: self-determination, non-intervention, human rights, distributive and ecological justice, and a principle of lawful change. These principles are further illustrated through two case studies, and the dissertation concludes with an assessment of the relevance to the study of international relations and the practice of foreign policy of the liberal-realist synthesis presented here. |
