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"Roberts, Peri"
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Evil in contemporary political theory
This edited volume explores the actual and possible roles of evil in contemporary political theory.
Book
Outer space and neo-colonial injustice
PurposeRecent developments in US rhetoric and policy advocating the militarisation and marketisation of outer space challenge the global commons values and regimes that developed partly in response to decolonisation. These regimes embodied aspirations to post-colonial distributive justice, as well as to international management for peaceful purposes. The purpose of this paper is to argue that global commons values should be defended against these challenges in order to avoid the risk of exporting colonial legacies of injustice into outer space.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is an exercise in normative International Political Theory and so develops normative arguments by drawing on approaches in political theory and international law.FindingsThis paper demonstrates that the commons values endorsed in the aftermath of colonialism retain their relevance in a global politics that remains structured by post-colonial power relations. This paper also demonstrates that these commons values have evolved and found expression in central elements of international law, persisting as resources to be drawn on in normative argument.Originality/valueThis study places recent moves to assert US hegemony in space in the context of persistent post-colonial power relations and develops novel arguments in renewed support of commons values.
Journal Article
War and Peace in The Law of Peoples: Rawls, Kant and the Use of Force
Where Rawls’s The Law of Peoples addresses war and the use of force then his position has often been identified closely with Walzer’s restatement of just war theory, as both positions appear to take nation-states, and the conflicts between them, to be the bedrock of the international system. On the other hand, Kant’s notion of a peaceful federation of states presents us with the notion of a world without war and where the international system is transformed. This article argues that Rawls’s account of the use of force is better understood if we read it with an eye to its resonances with Kant rather than with Walzer. Doing so rewards us with a clearer understanding of central aspects of Rawls’s account of just war and vision of international politics.
Journal Article
Outer space and neo-colonial injustice
Purpose
Recent developments in US rhetoric and policy advocating the militarisation and marketisation of outer space challenge the global commons values and regimes that developed partly in response to decolonisation. These regimes embodied aspirations to post-colonial distributive justice, as well as to international management for peaceful purposes. The purpose of this paper is to argue that global commons values should be defended against these challenges in order to avoid the risk of exporting colonial legacies of injustice into outer space.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is an exercise in normative International Political Theory and so develops normative arguments by drawing on approaches in political theory and international law.
Findings
This paper demonstrates that the commons values endorsed in the aftermath of colonialism retain their relevance in a global politics that remains structured by post-colonial power relations. This paper also demonstrates that these commons values have evolved and found expression in central elements of international law, persisting as resources to be drawn on in normative argument.
Originality/value
This study places recent moves to assert US hegemony in space in the context of persistent post-colonial power relations and develops novel arguments in renewed support of commons values.
Journal Article
An Introduction to Political Thought
This textbook, now in itsa second edition, is designed to equip students with a basic 'conceptual toolkit' for the study of political thought: (i) a basic political vocabulary, (ii) a conceptual vocabulary and (iii) an historical vocabulary.
eBook
An introduction to political thought
A conceptual toolkit for the study of political thought. New for this edition are new chapters on multiculturalism and global justice and recommended reading and citations updated throughout. This textbook gives you all the vocabulary you need - political, conceptual and historical - to engage confidently and deeply with political thought and the moral and political worlds in which we live.It traces the history of political thought from Plato and Aristotle to Benhabib and Rorty, following a unique dual structure that introduces key thinkers and core concepts.
eBook
Nussbaum's political liberalism: justice and the capability threshold
Purpose - Central to Martha Nussbaum's development of the capability approach into a theory of social and global justice is her addition of the notion of a capability threshold below which no dignified human life can be lived. This capability threshold identifies a standard for distributive justice that any decent political order must secure for all citizens. It is this threshold that is the intended focus of this paper.Design methodology approach - Examining her most recent statement of the capability approach, Nussbaum's arguments that the threshold should be locally set by each nation in accordance with their history and traditions, and that all nations currently fail to satisfy the threshold condition, are assessed.Findings - This paper shows that if Nussbaum's arguments are accepted, then the central function of a threshold as a tool of discrimination is undermined. If all nations fail to meet their locally set threshold, then there is no clear basis for the global redistribution that Nussbaum regards as necessary. Indeed, what basis there is could even justify counter-intuitive redistribution from poorer to richer nations.Originality value - This paper concludes that if the capability approach is to be developed into a theory of social justice, then, rather than being set locally at different levels, the capability threshold may need to be a genuinely global one. Only then can the threshold discriminate between unjust political orders and those that are at least minimally just.
Journal Article
Introduction to Political Thought: A Conceptual Toolkit: A Conceptual Toolkit
Organised chronologically to trace the history of political thought, this book follows a unique dual structure which introduces both key thinkers and core concepts.
eBook
An introduction to political thought: a conceptutal toolkit
Organised chronologically to trace the history of political thought, this book follows a unique dual structure which introduces both key thinkers and core concepts.
eBook
Constructivism and Evil
Constructivism in political theory is opposed to both scepticism and foundationalism. Against the sceptic the constructivist hopes to defend the objectivity of at least some political principles. Against the foundationalist the constructivist hopes to show that the defence of objectivity need not appeal to any account of the necessary and unchanging foundations for moral reasoning. Evil has traditionally been seen in foundationalist terms, as a theological concept depending on the existence of God or as depending on some alternative scheme of absolute moral judgement, in order to mark out a special sort of wrongness. When these foundations have been challenged by sceptical attack the idea of evil has seemed deprived of its sense. Many contemporary accounts seek to ‘debunk’ evil, to relativise it or to recast it as just a tool in the armoury of politicians. Given constructivism's non-foundationalism, must it be similarly sceptical towards evil, or can a place for the notion of evil be found in constructivist theories?After briefly laying out several contemporary sceptical positions that are keen to see evil in purely political and instrumental terms, this chapter will argue that evil can play three distinct roles in constructivist accounts and in doing so will defend an understanding of evil that goes well beyond the instrumental. Constructivism can make space for:Judgements of evil: constructivist accounts of political morality get off the ground by reference to what are regarded as paradigmatic instances of moral reasoning. Our specific judgements about what constitutes evil can play this role.Conceptions of evil: constructivist accounts of political morality aim to identify principles of justice that should be regarded as especially weighty. Various conceptions of evil can be regarded as making claims about the content of such principles of justice.The concept of evil: central to the idea of evil is the idea of the distinctly wrong, different in character from other wrongs. This notion of a ‘threshold’ within wrongness marks an important distinction for political constructivism. The idea of such a threshold makes possible the idea of a thin universalism that is important to plausible notions of political constructivism.
Book Chapter