Ethics and World Politics

Module Description

What, if anything, do the global wealthy owe to the global poor? Are restrictive immigration policies unjust? How should the burden of climate change be shared? Is there ever a duty to militarily intervene in cases where severe crimes against humanity are taking place? This modules seeks to address these questions and provides an opportunity to critically reflect upon some of the most pressing challenges facing our globalising world today. Over the coursse of the term we will look at issues surrounding human rights, global poverty, immigration, climate change, humanitarian intervention, and democracy, and we will critically engage with the views of contemporary political theorists who have attempted to address questions in these areas.

Module Objectives

This module aims to introduce you to key works in the contemporary literature on questions of global ethics, and to enable you to engage in sophisticated normative debates about important matters of international concern.

By the end of the module you will

1. have a clear grasp of the contemporary philosophical literature on the main ethical dilemmas arising at the global level
2. be able to construct coherent and robust arguments and perspectives
3. be able to draw connections between theoretical ideas and real world cases in areas of global ethical concern 

Preliminary Reading

Bell, D. 2010. Ethics and World Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Brown, G. W. & D Held (eds.). 2010. The Cosmopolitan Reader (Cambridge: Polity Press).

Heywood, A. 2011. Global Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

Hutchings, K. 2010. Global Ethics (Cambridge: Polity Press).

Mandle, J. 2006 Global Justice (Cambridge: Polity Press).

Singer, P. 2002. One World: The Ethics of Globalization (Yale University Press).

Assessment

One essay of 4000 words (100% of total mark).