Global Challenges
War, Self-Determination and Responsibility for Justice
1. Edition December 2006
224 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
In the late twentieth century many writers and activists envisioned
new possibilities of transnational cooperation toward peace and
global justice. In this book Iris Marion Young aims to revive such
hopes by responding clearly to what are seen as the global
challenges of the modern day.
Inspired by claims of indigenous peoples, the book develops a
concept of self-determination compatible with stronger institutions
of global regulation. It theorizes new directions for thinking
about federated relationships between peoples which assume that
they need not be large or symmetrical. Young argues that the use of
armed force to respond to oppression should be rare, genuinely
multilateral, and follow a model of law enforcement more than war.
She finds that neither cosmopolitan nor nationalist responses to
questions of global justice are adequate and so offers a
distinctive conception of responsibility, founded on participation
in social structures, to describe the obligations that both
individuals and organizations have in a world of global
interdependence.
Young applies clear analysis and cogent moral arguments to
concrete cases, including the wars against Serbia and Iraq, the
meaning of the US Patriot Act, the conflict in Palestine/Israel,
and working conditions in sweat shops.
Introduction.
Part I: Self-Determination.
1: Hybrid Democracy: Iroquois Federalism and the Postcolonial
Project.
2: Two Concepts of Self-Determination.
3: Self-Determination as Non-Domination: Ideals Applied to
Palestine/Israel.
Part II: War and Violence.
4: Power, Violence and Legitimacy: A Reading of Hannah Arendt in
an Age of.
Police Brutality and Humanitarian Intervention.
5: Envisioning a Global Rule of Law (with Daniele
Archibugi).
6: The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the
Current Security.
State.
7: De-Centering the Project of Global Democracy.
8: Reflections on Hegemony and Global Democracy.
Part III: Global Justice.
9: Responsibility, Social Connection, and Global Labor
Justice.
Notes.
Index
the ongoing debate on how best to reformulate key concepts in
international relations theory for the purpose of critical
analysis."
Marit Hovdal Moan, Journal of Peace Research
"This work offers a new facet for international discourse not
only on violence, war and conflict resolution, but also about
issues relating to sovereignty, global governance, peace and
justice. The author's knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject are
compelling. An admirable aspect of the book is the treatment of the
topics from theoretical and comparative perspectives before putting
them into specific contexts; this provides the book's strength. The
massive amount of data and information assembled in the process
also offer much material to both the general reader and experts
eager for an alternative approach to thinking about war, violence,
peace building, sovereignty and conflict resolution."
Sociology
"Global Challenges is a collection of essays that apply
Iris Young's penetrating philosophical inquiry to some of the
most important issues in world politics today. Young brings a
thoughtful critical analysis of self-determination, humanitarian
intervention, violence, global democracy and justice to matters
ranging from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the anti-sweatshop
movement in the garment industry. This deeply ethical book is a
must-read for students of global politics and international theory.
Young's courageous moral stand against injustice and war
gives us a realistic road-map for a more just and peaceful future.
Her wise counsel will be sorely missed."
J. Ann Tickner, University of Southern California
"This collection combines all that is remarkable in Iris Marion
Young's work - her philosophical clarity, her moral
anger with violence and injustice, and her irrepressible belief in
the possibility of a better world. Global Challenges helps us think
more clearly about what it means to bear responsibility for
injustices in other parts of the world, and what self-determination
means in a context of global interdependence."
Anne Phillips, London School of Economics
"Realistic, yet hopeful, these last essays by Iris Young show
that a different world is possible. She understands well the
massive weight of globalizing structures that inflict violence,
domination, uniformity. But her lucid analyses illustrate how
intelligent politics can resist, deflect, and reform these forces
- through new ideas, developed specifically for particular
contexts of oppression, and through collaboration with existing
social movements (anti-war, anti-sweatshops). Appreciating how she
interprets the world differently, we learn how to change
it."
Thomas Pogge, Columbia University
"Iris Marion Young was one of the truly original political
theorists of our dark times. She brought something new into the
world. This superb collection of articles on global politics, all
first published between 2000 and 2006, is exemplary of her
courageous and challenging practice of critical thought at its
best."
James Tully, University of Victoria