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Embedded Cosmopolitanism: Duties to Strangers and Enemies in a World of 'Dislocated Communities'

Toni Erskine

This book offers a challenging and original normative approach to some of the most pressing practical concerns in world politics —including the contested nature of the prohibitions against torture ... More

This book offers a challenging and original normative approach to some of the most pressing practical concerns in world politics —including the contested nature of the prohibitions against torture and the targeting of civilians in the war on terror. The author’s vision of ‘embedded cosmopolitanism’ responds to the charge that conventional cosmopolitan arguments neglect the profound importance of community and culture, particularity and passion. Bringing together insights from communitarian and feminist political thought, the author defends the idea that community membership is morally constitutive—while arguing that the communities that define us are not necessarily territorially bounded and that a moral perspective situated in them need not be parochial. The book employs this framework to explore some of the difficult moral dilemmas thrown up by contemporary warfare. Can universal principles of restraint demanded by conventional laws of war be robustly defended from a position that also acknowledges the moral force of particular ties and loyalties? By highlighting the links that exist even between warring communities, the author offers new reasons for giving a positive response—reasons that reconcile claims to local attachments and global obligations. The book provides an account of where we stand in relation to ‘strangers’ and ‘enemies’ in a diverse and divided world, and provides a theoretical framework for addressing the relationship between our moral starting point and the scope of our duties to others.Less

Illusions of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism

Richard English (ed.)

Terrorism and counter-terrorism represent enduringly and globally important phenomena, and the mutually shaping relationship between non-state terrorism and state counter-terrorism continues to shape ... More

Terrorism and counter-terrorism represent enduringly and globally important phenomena, and the mutually shaping relationship between non-state terrorism and state counter-terrorism continues to shape world politics. Illusions of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism brings together leading scholars in the field to analyse this relationship, and to do so in a distinctive manner. The book sustainedly assesses the interaction of terrorism and counter-terrorism through drawing simultaneously on a range of academic disciplines in dialogue with one another; it addresses the dynamics of counter-terrorism more interrogatively and concentratedly than is common in much of the scholarly literature; and it highlights a theme that is all too rarely considered in the field: namely, the shared and mutually echoing failings and illusions involved in the politics of terrorism and counter-terrorism alike. Chapters analyse post-9/11 counter-terrorism, the ongoing evolution of al-Qaida, the imperatives and challenges and global context of western counter-terrorist efforts, and the reasons behind terrorist campaigns sometimes enduring and sometimes coming to an end. Candid and wide-ranging, Illusions of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism offers rigorous and original argument on a subject of the highest significance.Less

The International Politics of EU-China Relations

Liu Fei

David Kerr (ed.)

The European Union and China have emerged as new international actors. They have an increasingly diverse relationship covering the economy, politics, technology, culture and education; but beyond ... More

The European Union and China have emerged as new international actors. They have an increasingly diverse relationship covering the economy, politics, technology, culture and education; but beyond these two-way linkages EU–China development is also changing the international political environment. One noted US scholar, David Shambaugh, has pointed to a ‘Strategic Triangle’ between the US, the EU, and China. Several other major actors such as Japan, India and Russia are also interested in the ‘EU factor’ in their relations with China; or the ‘China factor’ in their EU relations. This volume presents contributions from scholars from Europe and China, which debate the nature, problems and potential of the emerging strategic relationship between the EU and China. Several papers develop theoretical approaches to regionalism and inter-regionalism. This book provides an overview of EU–China relations and the wider international context, and it will be of interest to anyone interested in international relations.Less

Liberal World Orders

Tim Dunne and Trine Flockhart (eds)

Liberal world order is seen by many as either a fading international order in response to declining American hegemony, or as a failing international order riddled with internal tensions and ... More

Liberal world order is seen by many as either a fading international order in response to declining American hegemony, or as a failing international order riddled with internal tensions and contradicting positions. Either way, it is assumed to be in crisis. This book does not reject this claim. Nor does it deny that liberalism contains many inconsistencies. Instead, it argues that much of the literature has been conditioned by a view that sees liberal order's crisis primarily as a crisis of authority and which does not look further back than the twentieth century. As a result liberalism was shorn of its historical origins and previous rich debates about similar tensions and contradiction to those of today's liberal order. The volume questions the nature of liberal order's crisis by positing that liberal order's continual renewal was achieved through crisis, and it challenges the way in which the debate about liberalism has been conducted within the International Relations academy. Against the theoreticians it holds the position that liberalism has suffered from being too closely tied to the quest for scientific authenticity, resulting in a theoretical perspective with little or no commitment to political values and political vision. By turning the classical liberalism of Kant, Paine, and Mill into neoliberalism, liberalism lost its critical and normative potential. Against the policymakers, the volume holds the position that the practices of liberal order are resilient and have proved durable despite liberal order's many crises and despite liberal order's inconsistencies and tensions.Less