Ethics and International Relations

Course content

The course examines different traditions of international ethics. Study of ethics helps us to understand the right thing to do in a certain situation. It is an indispensable part of international politics which deal with issues like war and peace, intervention, human rights global justice and development all of which have far reaching moral implications. The course starts with the realist tradition and then goes on to analyze the liberal, rationalist and the utilitarian ethical traditions. The second part of the course consists of the application of different understandings of ethics to specific issues such as war and the use of force, forced and humanitarian intervention, global justice, global governance and human rights.