The question of whether ethical duties should transcend the community of nation-state has long dwelled in the realm of international relations and politics. This essay will contend that a cosmopolitan approach, emphasising the way in which ethical duties transcend the nation state, is justifiable, especially exemplified in the issues of immigration and intervention. However, this essay will also suggest that the application of cosmopolitan ideals in these areas can give rise to actions whose ethics and moral righteousness are highly debatable, exposing a communitarian argument.
Two ethical frameworks can be used to understand this issue. Firstly, in support of the contention, cosmopolitanism argues that all humans constitute a single moral …show more content…
Through a cosmopolitan lens, a state may welcome refugees and asylum seekers to emphasise the unity of the human family, and that an ethical duty is owed, despite nation-state borders. Examples of this can be found in various countries within the European Union, especially, up until recently, Germany and Italy, in the way they handled and dealt with the refugee crisis out of Syria and the Middle East (unhcr.org, 2016). On the contrary, Australian policies on the same issue have tended to adopt a communitarian approach by quite often diverging from the global trend, and becoming reclusive in their sensitivity to the ethical-duties outside their own nation-state (Refugee Council of Australia, 2014). This essay will then discuss humanitarian intervention, and how from a cosmopolitan perspective, it may seem obvious that the ethics involve exceeding the boundaries of the nation-state, such as the UN peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in the early 1990’s in response to Vietnams invasion. However, from a realist branch of communitarianism, moral righteousness is not always a factor in intervention, such as US intervention in the Middle East in the late 1990’s (Jones, 1960). It is true, that ethical duties theoretically should, and practically do transcend nation-state communities, however, as this essay will put forth, the moral righteousness of those ethical duties can be
Two ethical frameworks can be used to understand this issue. Firstly, in support of the contention, cosmopolitanism argues that all humans constitute a single moral …show more content…
Through a cosmopolitan lens, a state may welcome refugees and asylum seekers to emphasise the unity of the human family, and that an ethical duty is owed, despite nation-state borders. Examples of this can be found in various countries within the European Union, especially, up until recently, Germany and Italy, in the way they handled and dealt with the refugee crisis out of Syria and the Middle East (unhcr.org, 2016). On the contrary, Australian policies on the same issue have tended to adopt a communitarian approach by quite often diverging from the global trend, and becoming reclusive in their sensitivity to the ethical-duties outside their own nation-state (Refugee Council of Australia, 2014). This essay will then discuss humanitarian intervention, and how from a cosmopolitan perspective, it may seem obvious that the ethics involve exceeding the boundaries of the nation-state, such as the UN peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in the early 1990’s in response to Vietnams invasion. However, from a realist branch of communitarianism, moral righteousness is not always a factor in intervention, such as US intervention in the Middle East in the late 1990’s (Jones, 1960). It is true, that ethical duties theoretically should, and practically do transcend nation-state communities, however, as this essay will put forth, the moral righteousness of those ethical duties can be