Moral choice & world politics
Hehir, J. Bryan
Church/worldwatch Moral choice & world politics J. Bryan Hehir THE TOPIC of morality and foreign policy has a long but uneven history in American intellectual and political life. In the 1960s...
...Activists in the churches and other groups con-(Continued on page 730)Church/world watch (Continued from page 713) cerned with the arms race will be warned by Hoffman that an ethic of intention is not sufficient in the political world...
...in an interdependent age a Hobbesian approach to scarce resources threatens not only the poor but also the powerful...
...His approach is that of a policy analyst with an explicit normative commitment, one who seeks to "uplift politics" by clearly diagnosing what is and pushing it toward what ought to be...
...This will require testing the various disarmament measures against the arcane logic of deterrence...
...Such advice slows down coalition building but it may enhance the quality of our contribution to the public debate...
...that shows great restraint in its use of means...
...In other writings Hoffman has called this brand of statecraft world order politics...
...In the face of these conditions, the classical formula of incremental change designed to preserve a moderate international system is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of world order...
...This conviction is manifested in his three chapters of applied ethics on the use of force, human rights, and distributive justice...
...it must be joined with an ethic of consequences...
...In the 1970s many of the "real problems," from hunger to human rights to nonprolifera-tion of nuclear weapons, seemed so weighted with moral issues that Ache-son's dictum lost respectability and relevance...
...The obstacles to a morally correct posture are rooted in the nature of international relations: a sovereign state system devoid of centralized institutions or political consensus, pervasive value conflicts among the states, and the uncertainty which accompanies even the best intentioned actions...
...indeed the limits of the classical approach open the way for the more ambitious imperatives of "ethical international politics...
...In Hoffman's words: "The criteria of moral politics are double: sound principles and effectiveness...
...An impressive corpus lies between his first book, The State of War, and his most recent policy proposals in Primacy and World Order...
...The recent memorandum on human rights from the State Department with its uni-vocal stress on freedom as the embodiment of a human rights policy should be tested against Hoffmann's rigorous chapter on the same theme...
...More is needed...
...Professor Stanley Hoffman of Harvard confronts this task in Duties Beyond Borders: On the Limits and Possibilities of Ethical International Politics (Syracuse University Press, $18, $9.95 paper, 252 pp...
...In the 1960s Dean Ache-son pronounced himself on the theme by distinguishing between "real problems" and "moral problems" in the conduct of foreign policy...
...Finally, this book is an invitation to other academics who share Hoffman's background in political science, but have not yet stretched their curiosity or competence to engage the normative questions...
...In the face of these facts, Hoffmann maintains a reserved but determined conviction that moral choice is both possible and essential for foreign policy...
...in addition to monographs, he has contributed scores of articles which have shaped the policy argument in the United States and Europe...
...A decade of debate about these issues, however, has not provided a satisfactory method of relating the moral and the empirical coherently and credibly...
...The challenge is following him below the surface of the daily debate to a depth not often present in most considerations of this theme...
...Its objective is not only to know the right and the good, but to know how to realize them...
...In the nuclear age, the use of force is not simply an extension of what Clauswitz understood war to be...
...It is a demanding book, but worth the effort...
...The author of Duties Beyond Borders is always the intellectual sceptic but never the moral cynic...
...J. BRYAN HEHIR...
...Between opening and closing chapters which examine the essential elements of his topic, he dissects three specific cases: war, human rights, and global injustice, these questions are much on the mind of analysts and actors in the foreign policy debate...
...Such an encounter would benefit different groups in the policy debate...
...To read Hoffman's policy analysis is to be made aware of the value of the classical approach to world politics, but also to be shown its limits...
...Hoffman's book will discipline the debate...
...Characteristically he poses more questions than he proffers answers...
...He has written incisively and extensively on the political and strategic dimensions of the international system and U.S...
...It offers diverse benefits to different participants...
...Hoffman stresses modesty throughout the book...
...He charts this course with an acute sense of the narrow straits through which morality must be pursued in world politics...
...It is a mix of disciplined intellectual analysis and pervasive moral commitment...
...Yet the potential for war is still with us, and no consensus on access to resources exists...
...Hoffman's concern is to show the way toward reconciling "what is usually referred to as the realistic approach to international politics with the demands of morality...
...The value of the work is not that all should agree, but that each should have the experience of knowing why one disagrees with Hoffman's nuanced argument...
...that accepts the need for a large measure of institutionalization in international affairs, and for important commitments of resources to common enterprises...
...Depth of analysis should not be confused with definite answers...
...In these chapters the complementarity of Hoffman's empirical analysis and his ethical commitment are on display...
...Hoffman summarizes the case: "We need a statecraft that stresses long-term collective gains rather than short- or long-term national advantages...
...The normative dimension of foreign policy has been a continuing theme in his teaching and writing, but Duties Beyond Borders is his most detailed address to the topic...
...and that goes, in its choice of ends, far beyond the realm of interstate relations...
...BRYAN HEHIR...
Vol. 108 • December 1981 • No. 23
