Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2007
The question of global justice is among the most salient and controversial issues of our day. In the popular press it inspires a constant stream of books, articles, and film documentaries. It serves as the calling card for a major new social movement in rich and poor countries throughout the world (sometimes referred to as the “anti-globalization” movement). And it is an increasingly prominent issue in mainstream politics in Europe and the developing world (though not yet in the United States). If present trends continue, debates over global justice may become as ubiquitous in the 21st century as debates over socialism were in the previous century.For comments and suggestions on various versions of this manuscript I thank Wendy Hunter, Jim McGuire, Michael Ross, Strom Thacker, and the anonymous reviewers for this journal. For research assistance I am indebted to Hernan Roman. For financial support, I am grateful to Fred Pardee and the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University.