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 its most crucial challenges since the end of the cold war.

At the center 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, gender considerations, 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 a decade ago, at the time of the first edition. Following the tumultuous first decade of this century, they have only gained in importance.