What does responsibility mean in International Relations (IR)? This handbook brings together cutting-edge research on the critical debates about responsibility that are currently being undertaken in IR theory.
This handbook both reflects upon an emerging field based on an engagement in the most crucial theoretical debates and serves as a foundational text by showing how deeply a discussion of responsibility is embedded in broader questions of IR theory and practice. Contributions cover the way in which responsibility is theorized across different approaches in IR and relevant neighboring disciplines and demonstrate how responsibility matters in different policy fields of global governance. Chapters with an empirical focus zoom in on particular actor constellations of (emerging) states, international organizations, political movements, or corporations, or address how responsibility matters in structuring the politics of global commons, such as oceans, resources, or the Internet.
Providing a comprehensive overview of IR scholarship on responsibility, this accessible and interdisciplinary text will be a valuable resource for scholars and students in many fields including IR, international law, political theory, global ethics, science and technology, area studies, development studies, business ethics, and environmental and security governance.
Chapter 1 – Responsibility in International Relations Theory and Practice: Introducing the Handbook Part I – The Concept of Responsibility in International Relations Theory Chapter 2 – A Plural Theory of Responsibility Chapter 3 – The Emergence of Responsibility as a Global Scheme of Governance Chapter 4 – Human Rights Approach(es) to Responsibility Chapter 5 – Political Responsibility in a Globalized but Fractured Age Chapter 6 – Moral IRresponsibility in World Politics Chapter 7 – Rationalization, Reticence, and the Demands of Global Social and Economic Justice Chapter 8 – Responsibility and Authority in Global Governance Chapter 9 – Responsibility and the English School Part II – Mapping Responsibility Relations Across Policy Fields Chapter 10 – The Assigning and Erosion of Responsibility for the Global Environment Chapter 11 – Moral Geographies of Responsibility in the Global Agrifood System Chapter 12 – State Responsibilities and International Nuclear Politics Chapter 13 – Delegating Moral Responsibility in War: Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Responsibility Gap Chapter 14 – Negotiating Protection through Responsibility Chapter 15 – From Lisbon to Sendai: Responsibilities in International Disaster Management Part III – Responsibility Relations: Subjects, Objects and Speakers of Responsibility Chapter 16 – Responsible Diplomacy: Judgments, Wider National Interests and Diplomatic Peace Chapter 17 – Rising Powers and Responsibility Chapter 18 – Responsibility as an Opportunity: China’s Water Governance in the Mekong Region Chapter 19 – Responsibility as practice: Implications of UN Security Council Responsibilization Chapter 20 – Rebel with a Cause: Rebel Responsibility in Intrastate Conflict Situations Chapter 21 – What Responsibility for International Organisations? The Independent Accountability Mechanisms of the Multilateral Development Banks Chapter 22 – The International Labour Organization's Role to ensure decent Work in a globalized Economy: a contested Responsibility? Chapter 23 – Business and Responsibility for Human Rights in Global Governance Chapter 24 – Social Media Actors: Shared Responsibility 3.0? Part IV – Global Commons as Responsibility Objects Chapter 25 – Responsibility on the High Seas Chapter 26 – The Role of Humanity's Responsibility towards Biodiversity: the BBNJ Treaty Chapter 27 – A Responsibility to freeze? The Arctic as a complex Object of Responsibility Chapter 28 – Responsibility for Global Finance: Shareholders, Supervisors, and Stakeholders Chapter 29 – Diplomacy and Responsibilities in the Transnational Governance of the Cyber Domain Part V – Critical Reflections & Theoretical Debates Chapter 30 – Framing Responsibility Research in International Relations Chapter 31 – Academic Responsibility in the Face of Climate Change Chapter 32 – Derrida’s Ethics of Decision and the Politics of responding to Others Chapter 33 – On Potential and Limits of the Concept of Responsibility as a Reference Point for the Use of Practical Reason
Hannes Hansen-Magnusson is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Cardiff University and Director of the International Studies Research Unit. Antje Vetterlein is Professor of Global Governance at the University of Münster and Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School.
