Can institutions, in the sense of formal organizations, be considered vulnerable to moral burdens? The contributors to this book critically examine the idea of the 'collective' or 'institutional' moral agent in, inter alia , the guise of states, transnational corporations, the UN and international society. The viability of treating these entities as bearers of moral responsibilities is explored in the context of some of the most critical and debated issues and events in international relations, including the genocide in Rwanda, development aid, the Kosovo campaign and global justice.

Autorentext

CHRISTIAN BARRY Director, Program on Justice and the World Economy, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs CHRIS BROWN Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics, UK PAUL CORNISH Director, Centre for Dence Studies, Kings College, University of London, UK REBECCA DEWINTER School of International Service, American University, USA MERVYN FROST Professor of International Relations, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK FRANCES V. HARBOUR Associate Professor of Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, USA DANIELA KROSLAK University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK ANTHONY F. LANG Jr. Program Officer, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs CORNELIA NAVARI Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, UK NICHOLAS RENGGER Professor of Political Theory and International Relations, St Andrews University, UK DAVID RUNCIMAN Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Cambridge, UK

Zusammenfassung
Policy-makers, politicians, academics and the 'average person on the street' all tend to speak of formal organizations such as states, the UN and multinational corporations as bearing moral reponsibilities in international politics. We often refer to such bodies as having obligations to rescue, to feed or to provide membership to distant victims of, for example, violence, famine or persecution. If they fail to discharge these proposed duties, we condemn them. Can we coherently refer to institutions in international politics as bearers of moral burdens, or does moral agency only apply to individual human beings? As assumptions and assertions of duty and blame play such a prominent role in international politics - in supporting policies, condemning and condoning actions and placating publics - it is an important endeavour to question, clarify and perhaps correct these claims. Can Institutions have Responsibilities? aims to address and critically engage with this often implicitly invoked but under-theorized notion of institutions as bearers of moral burdens in international politics.

Inhalt

Introduction: Making Sense of 'Responsibility' in International Relations: Key Questions and Concepts; T.Erskine PART I: IDENTIFYING MORAL AGENTS: STATES, GOVERNMENTS AND 'INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY' Assigning Responsibilities to Institutional Moral Agents: The Case of States and Quasi-states; T. Erskine Moral Responsibility and the Problem of Representing the State; D.Runciman Moral Agency and International Society: Reflections on Norms, the UN, the Gulf War, and the Kosovo Campaign; C.Brown PART II: OBSTACLES AND ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS Collective Moral Agency and the Political Process; F.V.Harbour Constitutive Theory and Moral Accountability: Individuals, Institutions, and Dispersed Practices; M.Frost When Agents Cannot Act: International Institutions as 'Moral Patients'; C.Navari PART III: HARD CASES: ASSIGNING DUTIES NATO and the Individual Soldier as Moral Agents with Reciprocal Duties: Imbalance in the Kosovo Campaign; P.Cornish & F.V.Harbour The Anti-Sweatshop Movement: Constructing Corporate Moral Agency in the Global Apparel Industry; R.DeWinter PART IV: HARD CASES: APPORTIONING BLAME The Responsibility of Collective External Bystanders in Cases of Genocide: The French in Rwanda; D.Kroslak The United Nations and the Fall of Srebrenica: Meaningful Responsibility and International Society; A.F.Lang, Jr. PART V: CONCLUSIONS On 'Good Global Governance', Institutional Design and the Practices of Moral Agency; N.Rengger Global Justice: Aims, Arrangements and Responsibilities; C.Barry Selected Bibliography Index