Special Responsibilities
Global Problems and American Power

This is the first study of how major global problems have been managed through the international distribution of special responsibilities.

Mlada Bukovansky (Author), Ian Clark (Author), Robyn Eckersley (Author), Richard Price (Author), Christian Reus-Smit (Author), Nicholas J. Wheeler (Author)

9781107021358, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 May 2012

304 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.58 kg

'This fascinating, groundbreaking study provides an in-depth analysis of special responsibilities and legitimacy in world politics. The authors successfully analyze the practice of evoking special responsibility, explicating with theory and evidence how special responsibilities have been allocated and contested in important global problems in world politics. Summing up: recommended. All readership levels.' K. M. Zaarour, Choice

The language of special responsibilities is ubiquitous in world politics, with policymakers and commentators alike speaking and acting as though particular states have, or ought to have, unique obligations in managing global problems. Surprisingly, scholars are yet to provide any in-depth analysis of this fascinating aspect of world politics. This path-breaking study examines the nature of special responsibilities, the complex politics that surround them and how they condition international social power. The argument is illustrated with detailed case-studies of nuclear proliferation, climate change and global finance. All three problems have been addressed by an allocation of special responsibilities, but while this has structured politics in these areas, it has also been the subject of ongoing contestation. With a focus on the United States, this book argues that power must be understood as a social phenomenon and that American power varies significantly across security, economic and environmental domains.

Introduction
Part I. Theoretical Framework: 1. A practice in search of a theory
2. Special responsibilities in world politics
Part II. Three Global Problems: 3. Nuclear proliferation
4. Climate change
5. Global finance
Part III. Ethical Dimensions: 6. The ethics of special responsibilities
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: International organisations & institutions [LBBU], Diplomacy [JPSD], International relations [JPS]