In this book I argue that although normative questions regularly arise in the day-to-day practice of international politics the discipline of international relations has not accorded ethical theory a central place within it. I examine the reasons which are given for this neglect of normative theory and find that they are not convincing. Having made the case that normative theory ought to be central to the discipline, I turn to the business of constructing a substantive ethical theory which will enable us to answer the difficult questions we encounter in the practice of international relations. I do this by first examining the theories which are dominant in the field. These turn out to be seriously flawed.

Second, I turn to the more positive task of presenting a theory which I hold is better able to answer the pressing ethical questions we encounter in international relations. This theory I call constitutive theory. In the final chapters I show how constitutive theory may be applied to normative questions which arise with regard to the use of unconventional violence in international affairs and to questions about the self-determination of nations.

Normative questions in the practice of international relations

We, as individuals or in association with others, are all regularly called upon to seek answers to the following questions: Where different nations claim the right to self-determination in the same territory, whose claim should we support?