ABSTRACT
The field of international ethics (IE) has long involved a philosophical dimension. This has certainly been most apparent in the ways in which IE addresses ethical concerns, such as harm to the innocent, or meta-questions, such as the realist argument that ethics have no role in international politics. Within IE, it is perhaps most common to see reference, explicitly or implicitly, to Mill’s utilitarianism, or Kant’s categorical imperative that we treat persons as ends in themselves, or principles from the just war tradition, such as discrimination and proportionality. We might say that philosophical approaches to IE can take place on different levels. First, IE may draw on broad ethical frameworks, such as utilitarianism, deontological ethics, or just war doctrine. Next, somewhat less commonly, IE may address more fine-grained ethical questions, such as consent, moral agency, intent, or volition. Last, we may want to consider whether there are interesting ways to push the boundaries, by drawing on disciplines less commonly used in IE, such as epistemology, hermeneutics, and psychoanalysis; and seeking to incorporate critical perspectives, such as post-modern approaches, feminism, and perspectives from the Global South.
