Anarchism and Global Ethics

Abstract

Anarchists are relative newcomers to thinking theoretically in IR, even more so in respect of ethical theorising. In this chapter I will contextualize recent developments in anarchist moral and normative theorizing in International Relations within wider discussions of the same in the broader social sciences. I will identify three broad moves within this mutual and related set of developments. First, there is a small but important rights tradition of anarchist ethics. On the whole anarchist reject the rights tradition of theorizing ethics, given its association with social contract theory. But it is important to understand the criticisms mounted by anarchist rights theorists so that we can see how human rights and related universal norms common to more mainstream discussions of ethics are engaged and rejected. Secondly, and more persuasively, there has been a move to locate anarchist ethics within the broader tradition of virtue ethics. This practice and community-oriented account of ethics is central to understanding how actually existing anarchist communities, understand the development of norms of right behavior. Finally, and critically, building on a broader suspicion of ethics and morality amongst poststructuralist theorists, the broad and complex convergence of ‘post-anarchist’ ethical theorists in IR approach ethics from the perspective of the development and construction of political subjectivity and the possibilities of resistance embodied in competing fields of action. These traditions pull in different directions, but underlying them all, I will argue, is a defense of anti-oppression, or non-domination. How this plays out in specific empirical cases relevant to students of International Relations will be the focus of the final part of the paper.