Importance of Ethics in International Relations

Importance of ethics in IR:

Legitimacy:

• Ethics does its work in the world by granting and withdrawing legitimacy. History shows that the mitigation and cessation of unjust practices ultimately comes from the assertion of core values.
• The end of slavery began with various revolutions and rebellions—yet the source of its ultimate demise was its loss of moral legitimacy.
• Communism, for the most part, ended in similar fashion. The Soviet Union collapsed when the values that held it together were no longer credible and sustainable. Its legitimacy evaporated.

Rights and Responsibilities:

• Rights are protections and entitlements in relation to corresponding duties and responsibilities.
• There have been many attempts at forging general agreement on the composition of human rights—the best known being the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions, and additional international agreement such as the Refugee Convention.

Pluralism:

• Ideology presents a significant hurdle. Many political ideologies— “isms” and doctrines that are absolute and universal—result in what Hans Morgenthau called “the crusading spirit.”
• Absolutes and moral abstractions in politics can be problematic for the ethicist. Ideologies like nationalism, Marxism, communism, religious fundamentalism and even Western liberalism in the wrong hands, have been great simplifiers, prone to excesses of political operators who use them to cloak their political interests in the guise of high-minded moral purpose.

Peace and Harmony:

• Ethics aim at “Peaceful World”, “Respect for All” & “Equality” while forming international organizations, declarations & forums. E.g.: The demand for equality in IMF & UNO shows the demand of adhering to ethics in a way.

Solidarity:

• Natural disasters and refugee crisis situations require a more compassionate view of the global community. These are not isolated events and rather, the duty of every global citizen to help in the times of crisis.
  g.- Aid during natural disasters (Nepal earthquake)

Fairness:

• Fairness addresses normative standards for appropriate contribution, equal regard and just desert.
  Contemporary methods for thinking through these standards include John Rawls’s “difference principle,” Amartya Sen’s “capabilities approach,” Peter Singer’s “one world,” and Kwame Anthony Appiah’s “cosmopolitanism” just to name a few.

Others:

• Ethics helps to avoid the “Ego Clash” & “Ideological Clash” between two or more nations.
  For instance, the disruption between India & Pakistan relations can be avoided if both take a decision based on ethics.

However, there are instances where ethics in IR has gone overboard:

• The alleged just war cause where a country thinks it’s their moral responsibility to save the world. E.g.: USA and Iraq war.
• Threat to the Rules-based order of the world by sidelining of the Global bodies like UNSC, WTO etc.
• Increasing Multilateral groupings to satisfy their personal interests.

Ethics helps to avoid undue wars, conflicts and provide an ecosystem where there is mutual trust, goodwill, and confidence among all the Countries and helps to foster International Relations.

---

_{Source- Internet}