International Relations - Assignment

Running head: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
International Relations
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The theory of global justice exists within the framework of broader school of
cosmopolitanism (Acharya 2014). In this regard, it is noteworthy to mention here that, since time
immemorial, the school of cosmopolitan laid emphasis on the importance of individuals rather
than state and communities. According to the perspective of Cosmopolitans human being
possesses equal moral rights and therefore acquires equal moral analysis (Acuto and Curtis
2014). In this context, if disagreement arises between cosmopolitans regarding the fact that how
individuals fit within the subject-matter of equal moral concern. The essay intends to highlight
the views of the cosmopolitans to the existence of individuals rather than states. In this essay the
argumentative claims of different authors shall be emphasized. In this regard firstly the
arguments of Liberal Rawlsians shall be presented whose focus was limited state-centric
approaches. The arguments of Thomas Pogge will be presented in the second section which
would attract much attention as it focused on human-centric approaches rather than states.
Thirdly the approaches of moral cosmopolitan shall be applied to the mentioned arguments.
Fourthly, the theory of Global Justice shall be emphasized. In the fifth section the views of
contemporary authors against the cosmopolitans shall be emphasized. Finally, it shall be
discussed that why the basic structure of international relations should be governed by the
principles of cosmopolitans.
Perspectives of Liberal Rawlsians:
The approaches have been identified as Kantianism and Utilitarianism which are moral
cosmopolitan approaches. As a result of such focus on the moral value of individuals other than
that of states the cosmopolitan scholars could critically evaluate the theories of justice which
from the very beginning focused on the existence of states. The scholars of contemporary global
justice emphasized on the moral worth of individuals by excluding the issues of global

2INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
cohabitation. According to the opinion of Pogge, a just and stable institutional scheme which is
involved by the concept of Justice by preserving the allocation of basic rights and opportunities
and goods which is declared as fair within the nations and globe (Adler-Nissen 2014). Liberal
Rawlsians agreed with such perspective along with other cosmopolitans by stating that there
must be equal value within societies. It can be mentioned that Thomas Pogge laid emphasis on
human-centric approach to justice while John Rawl emphasized on state-centric approach to
justice (Aradau and Huysmans 2014). In this regard, it is worth mentioning that traditionally the
theory of justice was based on political structures which were concerned with states by
determining the power of the states to make laws and involve in the welfare of public policy.
Therefore, in the opinion of Pogge political structures should be constructed in such a way by
ensuring proper distribution of rights and duties between individuals of the states (Berger 2014).
However, the traditional theory of justice dealt with the concept of distributive justice where
revenue is shared equally within the states however, it is not equally distributed between
individuals of the society. As a result of such inequality in the distribution of wealth the
individuals of states were refrained from living a decent life. In the perspective of Thomas
Pogge, such concept can prevail within the framework of a democratic society (Buzan and
Lawson 2014). In this context, it can be stated that the traditional theory of justice was associated
with the presence of states however, the existence of human beings were ignored. However, the
traditional theory of justice was designed in a way to deal with the issues of the state.
Various cosmopolitan scholars dealt with the issues arising out of the traditional theory of
justice by applying the approaches of Utilitarianism and Kantianism (Chan et al. 2015). The
utilitarian approach can be applied to the traditional theory of justice as it cannot be applied to
the subject-matter of moral philosophy. In this regard, it is noteworthy to mention here that the

3INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
moral principle of utilitarianism is to maximize utility which is applicable to the actions of
individuals and the concept of international relations (Fabbrini 2016). However, Kantianism
approach was based on the foundation of two basic rights- acquired and innate.
Views of Thomas Pogge:
Different cosmopolitan scholars argued that the questions regarding the traditional
theories of justice has created limitations in a modern era (Holzscheiter 2014). It is worth noting
that with the advent of global institutions which proved to be efficient in performing the major
functions of the state which includes the power to make laws and to impose or collect taxes. In
this regard, Thomas Pogge was of the opinion that there existed inequalities between individuals
which are a concern of the nations as it constituted a major global issue. Therefore, Thomas
Pogge laid emphasis on the issue regarding global inequalities arising between individuals of the
states by applying the approaches of Utilitarianism and Kantianism. However, from the very
beginning Thomas Pogge grounded his arguments in various other ways by widening the scope
of international justice thereby taking it to a global level. As a result of these arguments, the term
global justice came into being and thereby the theories of international relations originated. It can
be noted that the theories of international relations laid much emphasis on the individuals rather
than the states.
Thomas Pogge also focused on the issues of global poverty. Therefore it was argued by
Thomas Pogge that the programs of poverty alleviation laid emphasis on the redistribution of
resources and revenues between different sections of the society- the rich and the poor (Hurd
2014). With the evaluation of humanitarian intervention, Thomas Pogge presented vide argument
regarding the issue related to individuals over the objectives state-centric theories. He