L. Amoureux, Jack (Wake Forest University, USA.)

A Practice of Ethics for Global Politics: Ethical Reflexivity - New International Relations L. Amoureux, Jack (Wake Forest University, USA.) 1st edition

What kind of global ethics is possible if there is no foundation for moral knowledge, or, at the very least, if this global reality is complex and knowledge of it uncertain? Furthermore, how can a practice of ethics satisfactorily deal with difference, a persistent and confounding feature of global politics for any normative or empirical theory of International Relations?

The literature in international and global ethics struggles with these questions, but turns to well-known traditions of moral thought and ethics for answers, such as pragmatism, a thinner version of cosmopolitanism, or communicative avenues toward consensus, all of which assume or aspire to some degree of universality. This book responds to the call for a bold and creative practice of ethics for global politics that still recognizes and allows difference, complexity and uncertainty, an account that is sure to elicit widespread consideration and response.

Amoureux critically discusses and draws on the rich work on critique, affect, rhetoric, friendship, and knowledge that Aristotle, Arendt, Foucault and Giddens engage, to develop a conceptual basis for ethical practice as well as concrete strategies for its exercise. ?Ethical reflexivity? is a powerful practice of international and global politics because it equips individuals and organizations with the tools to recognize, interrogate, and potentially change the stories they tell about international politics?about the constraints of politics, notions of responsibility, and visions of desirability.

This book is aimed at shedding light on seemingly intractable problems associated with pressing international and global issues and on offering new possibilities for agency and action. And, by rejecting the normative/analytical bifurcation that pervades much of social science, ?ethical reflexivity? provides IR scholars a well-specified practice of self-reflexivity to reinvigorate theories of international/global politics by highlighting and interrogating their own thought and action, as they also recognize this agential capacity in the subjects they study.