Political Theory and International Relations

Charles R. Beitz0691009155, 9780691009155, 0691076146-:, 0691021929

In this revised edition of his 1979 classic Political Theory and International Relations , Charles Beitz rejects two highly influential conceptions of international theory as empirically inaccurate and theoretically misleading. In one, international relations is a Hobbesian state of nature in which moral judgments are entirely inappropriate, and in the other, states are analogous to persons in domestic society in having rights of autonomy that insulate them from external moral assessment and political interference. Beitz postulates that a theory of international politics should include a revised principle of state autonomy based on the justice of a state’s domestic institutions, and a principle of international distributive justice to establish a fair division of resources and wealth among persons situated in diverse national societies.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Contents……Page 6
Preface……Page 8
Introduction……Page 13
PART ONE: International Relations as A State of Nature……Page 21
1. The Skepticism of the Realists……Page 25
2. The Hobbesian Situation……Page 37
3. International Relations as a State of Nature……Page 45
4. The Basis of International Morality……Page 60
5. From International Skepticism to the Morality of States……Page 73
PART TWO: The Autonomy of States……Page 77
1. State Autonomy and Individual Liberty……Page 81
2. Nonintervention, Paternalism, and Neutrality……Page 93
3. Self-determination……Page 102
4. Eligibility, Boundaries, and Nationality……Page 115
5. Economic Dependence……Page 126
6. State Autonomy and Domestic Social Justice……Page 131
PART THREE: International Distributive Justice……Page 135
1. Social Cooperation, Boundaries, and the Basis of Justice……Page 139
2. Entitlements to Natural Resources……Page 146
3. Interdependence and Global Distributive Justice……Page 153
4. Contrasts between International and Domestic Society……Page 164
5. The Rights of States……Page 171
6. Applications to the Nonideal World……Page 179
Conclusion……Page 187
1. The Truth in Realism……Page 195
2. Intervention and the Value of Community……Page 201
3. International Distributive Justice……Page 208
Conclusion……Page 224
Works Cited in the Afterword……Page 226
Works Cited……Page 231
Index……Page 247