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281. Torture and the "Distributive Justice" Theory of Self-Defense: An Assessment

Author:
Whitley Kaufman
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
The notorious Bybee Memorandum produced by the Bush Administration in 2002 defends the use of coercive interrogation by (among other things) arguing that torturing terrorists in order to prevent future harm could be justified as a form of "self-defense." This argument relies on a recent and little-known theory of self-defense that I call the "distributive justice" theory. The goal of this essay is to demonstrate that distributive justice is a flawed theory of self-defense and must be rejected, thus undercutting the argument that torture can be justified as self-defense. Harm inflicted on a person who is in custody and no longer able to commit further acts of violence cannot plausibly be considered a form of self-defense.

282. Online Exclusive: Response To Whitley Kaufman: The Distributive Justice Theory of Self-Defense

Author:
Re'em Segev
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Segev argues for a theory of distributive justice and considers its implications. This theory includes a principle of responsibility that was endorsed by others within an account of defensive force (self-defense and defense of others). Kaufman criticizes this account, which he refers to as the "distributive justice theory of self-defense" (DJ theory). In this paper, Segev responds to this criticism.

283. The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future

Author:
Peter van der Veer
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
The Clash Within is a lengthy account of the rise of the Hindu right and of anti-Muslim violence in contemporary India. There is little in the book that strikes the specialist as new or original, since the events and arguments it deals with are well known and extensively dealt with in the existing literature, but the author wants to address a wider audience. Nussbaum argues that her contribution is as that of a loudspeaker, since she feels that Indian developments are wrongly ignored in the United States and Europe. In her view, the reason for this neglect is ''the way in which terrorism and the war on Iraq have distracted Americans from events and issues of fundamental significance'' (p. 1). This is not self-evident, since one might plausibly contend that Iraq and the Middle East (including Israel) rightly attract more attention and are of more fundamental significance for American foreign policy than Hindu-Muslim antagonism in India. How-ever, Nussbaum's argument is not located at the level of geopolitics, but at the level of national political systems. She argues that the problem of how religious nationalism affects the largest democracy in the world is instructive for all democracies. From a philosopher one might expect a theoretical argument about democracy, nationalism, and religion to frame what we can learn from the Indian case, but Nussbaum's book surprisingly offers more journalism than theory.
Topic:
Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Europe, Middle East, India, and Israel

284. Inventing Human Rights: A History

Author:
Bronwyn Leebaw
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
In the second half of the eighteenth century, epistolary novels became popular in France and England, people began listening to the opera in silence rather than walking around to converse with friends, and efforts were made to prevent theater-goers in Paris from disrupting performances by coordinating their coughing and farting. For Lynn Hunt, these changes in the daily lives of Europeans are intrinsically related to the development of universal human rights. In this rich and beautifully written work, Hunt argues that human rights rely upon our ability to empathize with strangers. The changing habits and experiences of late-eighteenth-century Europe fostered new understandings of individuality and empathy, which would support the expansion of rights.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe, Paris, France, and England

285. Planet of Slums

Author:
Ron Kassimir
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Planet of Slums is relentless. Mike Davis, the prolific author and social critic, piles on evidence in the service of a passionate, despairing, and at times furious analysis of the economic, social, and environmental state of cities in the global South. Davis might have just as readily titled his book The World Is a Ghetto, after the 1972 hit by the band War. But a key goal of the book is to show how much things have changed since that time, almost all for the worse. If the book tends to oversimplify enormously complex and diverse urban worlds, it has an undeniable virtue at its core. Whereas the War tune's chorus was ''don't you know / that it's true / that for me and for you / the world is a ghetto,'' Davis never stops asking who the ''me and you'' are. The growth and transformation of slums from Cairo to Manila, from Lagos to Lima, are both a symbol and a cause of a growing gap in life chances (socioeconomic and existential) between rich and poor—local, national, and global in scale.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, and War

286. Development as a Human Right: Legal, Political, and Economic Dimensions

Author:
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
In the foreword to this volume, a Nobel Symposium Book from the Harvard School of Public Health, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour writes: There is growing support for the idea that global poverty is an affront to human rights, and that the realization of human rights for a life of freedom and dignity is inescapably a central purpose of development. Yet the right to development remains a politically divisive issue. The concept has its roots in the political economy of the 1970 s and 1980 s, when developing countries mobilized for a New International Economic Order in which countries of the North would actively facilitate growth and development in the South through aid, trade, and investment. While the right to development is still championed by developing countries and resisted by donor countries, it (and the broader concept of a human rights-based approach to development) is also controversial among theorists and practitioners in both the human rights and the development fields. Some human rights legal scholars challenge its usefulness, arguing that it brings together rights that already exist. In the development community, little attention has been paid to the right to development per se, and economists who dominate the mainstream of development theory and practice are somewhat puzzled by the idea that human rights in general should be a concern in development at all. They often question the relevance of human rights discourse on development and see it as idealistic and utopian, since it insists on the equal value of all rights. Given that economic policymaking is about setting priorities and considering trade-offs, ''rights talk'' seems to be an obstacle rather than an aid to the task of formulating policies and strategies.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Human Rights, and United Nations

287. Briefly Noted

Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
This section contains a round-up of recent notable books in the field of international affairs.
Topic:
Development and Human Rights
Political Geography:
California

288. The Resurgent Idea of World Government

Author:
Campbell Craig
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
The idea of world government is returning to the mainstream of scholarly thinking about international relations. Universities in North America and Europe now routinely advertise for positions in ''global governance,'' a term that few would have heard of a decade ago. Chapters on cosmopolitanism and governance appear in many current international relations (IR) textbooks. Leading scholars are wrestling with the topic, including Alexander Wendt, perhaps now America's most influential IR theorist, who has recently suggested that a world government is simply ''inevitable.'' While some scholars envision a more formal world state, and others argue for a much looser system of ''global governance,'' it is probably safe to say that the growing number of works on this topic can be grouped together into the broader category of ''world government''—a school of thought that supports the creation of international authority (or authorities) that can tackle the global problems that nation-states currently cannot.
Topic:
Government and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe and North America

289. Just War Theory and the Privatization of Military Force

Author:
James Pattison
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Since the 1990 s there has been a marked growth in the private military industry. Private military companies (PMCs) have been taking on an ever-increasing number of roles traditionally performed by the regular military. These range from supplying training, logistics, and other support services to engaging occasionally in actual fighting. This is most notable in Iraq, where the U.K. and U.S. governments have employed a host of ''security'' companies, such as Aegis, Blackwater, Control Risks Group, Erinys, Vinnell, and KBR. The use of these companies has by no means been limited to Iraq, however. Nor is it only the U.K. and the U.S. that have made use of their services. Other states, multinational companies, NGOs, and even the U.N. have hired PMCs.
Topic:
Privatization, United Nations, and War
Political Geography:
United States and United Kingdom

290. The Rights of Irregular Migrants

Author:
Joseph H. Carens
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
This article considers the question of what legal rights should be possessed by those who reside and work in a democratic state without the legal authorization of the state, given the background assumption that the state is morally entitled to exclude such migrants. I argue that irregular migrants are morally entitled to a wide range of legal rights, including basic human and civil rights, but also rights to wages, workplace protections, and even rights to public education for their children. In order for these rights to be realized in practice, I argue, states ought to create a firewall between those charged with protecting and enforcing these rights and those charged with enforcing immigration laws.
Topic:
Law