Ethical reasoning and justification in international relations

Ariel Colonomos (1)

1 CERI - Centre de recherches internationales (Sciences Po, CNRS)

Foucauldian notions, such as the critique of governmental reason, the regime of truth, and juridification, are enlightening for comprehending the phenomenon of justification in international relations. My use of Foucault is intended to be non-relativistic. These notions shed light on a process of justification based on a utilitarian reason of consequences, which is today very significant in international affairs. In this article I attempt to reconcile a genealogical approach with an abstract philosophical approach that sets the limits of one kind of ethical reason.

Domains: Political science

Ariel Colonomos. Ethical reasoning and justification in international relations. International Social Science Journal, 2008, 59 (191), pp.115 - 127. ⟨10.1111/j.1468-2451.2009.00684.x⟩. ⟨hal-03415837⟩