Ethics in International Relations (347-0-20)

Instructors

Karen Alter-Hanson
847/491-4842
Scott Hall #318

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-430: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

This course is designed to challenge you to make decisions about the role ethics play in international affairs. What role do and should ethical considerations play in international relations? Answering this question empirically and normatively raises more challenges than you may think. Is there an inevitable tension between acting ethically and acting in one's self-interest? Is it utopian to think about ethical factors playing a role in international affairs? If ethics should or do matter, then how should and do ethical concerns get factored in to state and individual decision-making? Are there universal moral standards that governments should respect? Is there an "international society" to whom leaders should be accountable? What should our individual responsibility be in ensuring ethical political relations at the international level, as political leaders, members of businesses, and as individual citizens?

The first three weeks are foundational to the course. We explore a handful of ethical frameworks, which can serve as launchpads for thinking about the role of ethics in international affairs. We will apply these frameworks to specific ethical issues in international relations, surveying issues such as the ethics of using force internationally, environmental ethics, and global distributive justice. Students can either choose the ethics in war module, a traditional lecture style course. Or students can engage in project based learning that will involve researching and analyzing ethical arguments about the global wealth distribution, access to medicine, ethics of a global human rights project, or the ethics of climate change. Ultimately (and beyond the course itself) the goal is to have you create for yourself a moral code of conduct to guide you as citizen of a powerful state, as a tacit supporter of war in some circumstances, and as a human living in a flawed world.

Registration Requirements

Attendance at first class required

Learning Objectives

All students will understand the 3 international frames for how or whether ethics have a role in international relations: realism, liberalism and Constructivism.

All students will understand and grapple with Peter Singer's philosophy about individual obligations to do good and be global citizens

Students in the Ethics in War module will understand Just War Theory and its modern applications

Students in group project-based learning components will gain research and presentation skills as they explore debates about their chosen ethical issues.

These will be group projects, not individual projects, and they will involved presentations to the course so that all students learn from the research.

Evaluation Method

All assignments are take home written essays or exams. The distribution of assignments varies depending on whether students take that traditional route or project based learning.

Class Materials (Required)

Mark. R. Amstutz International Ethics: Concepts, Theories and Cases in Global Politics Fifth Edi-tion. 2018.

Peter Singer The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically

Class Attributes

Ethics & Values Distro Area

Associated Classes

DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-339: Thurs 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - Locy Hall 106: Thurs 4:00PM - 4:50PM