Right and Wronged in International Relations
Evolutionary Ethics, Moral Revolutions, and the Nature of Power Politics

Countering the opposing narratives of political amorality and moral progressivism, Rathbun provides a new approach to the place of morality in international politics.

Brian C. Rathbun (Author)

9781009344715, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 August 2023

300 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.762 kg

'An interesting contribution to the literature on the role of morality in international politics, arguing that morality is everywhere, even in places where we might least expect it. This book will have wide impact, not only in international relations (IR) theory, but also in political theory, evolutionary ethics, moral psychology, philosophy, and history.' David Traven, Department of Political Science, California State University, Fullerton

Brian Rathbun argues against the prevailing wisdom on morality in international relations, both the commonly held belief that foreign affairs is an amoral realm and the opposing concept that norms have gradually civilized an unethical world. By focusing on how states respond to being wronged rather than when they do right, Rathbun shows that morality is and always has been virtually everywhere in international relations – in the perception of threat, the persistence of conflict, the judgment of domestic audiences, and the articulation of expansionist goals. The inescapability of our moral impulses owes to their evolutionary origins in helping individuals solve recurrent problems in their anarchic environment. Through archival case studies of German foreign policy; the analysis of enormous corpora of text; and surveys of Russian, Chinese, and American publics, this book reorients how we think about the role of morality in international relations.

Introduction
1. The nature in and nature of international relations Brian Rathbun
2. Lesser angels: moral condemnation and binding morality in international relations Brian Rathbun
3. Mankind is what anarchy makes of it: the material origins of ethics Brian Rathbun
4. See no evil, speak no evil?: cross-national micro- and macro foundational evidence of morality's ubiquity Brian Rathbun and Caleb Pomeroy
5. To provide and to protect: a dual-process model of foreign policy ideology for a dangerous or competitive world Brian Rathbun
6. Just desserts in the desert: fairness, status and wilhelmine foreign policy during the Moroccan crises Brian Rathbun
7. Barking dogs and beating drums: nationalism as moral revolution in German foreign policy Brian Rathbun
8. Biting the bullet: binding morality, rationality and the domestic politics of war termination in Germany during WWI Brian Rathbun
9. Dying in vain: authoritarian morality causes the German empire to collapse Brian Rathbun
10. Daily bread: Hitler, moral devolution and Nazi foreign policy Brian Rathbun
11. From Demonizing to dehumanizing: war under Hitler and the implications for mankind Brian Rathbun.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]