Ethics

Question 0

The realist school is…

Answer 0

-The school of thought that argues the global political arena is made up of individual states, with no common morality or any obligation to one another.

Question 1

Two responses by global actors for people movement debates are…

Answer 1

• Border Security is the argument that the housing and processing of unidentified asylum seekers in their borders is a threat to national security, and therefore national interest.
• This is clearly seen by actions of the Australian government when offshore processing began under the Pacific Solution despite it abandoning a condition of the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.
• The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) believe that the morale side of the argument is the right thing to do, that being; the rights of the refugees, common humanity; and non-refoulment.
• This side is partially followed by even the Australian government whom increased it’s yearly acceptance of refugees by 10,000 to appease the UNHCR and appear a positive member of the International Community.

Question 2

The pluralist school is…

Answer 2

• The school of thought argues the global political arena is made up if separate communities with some shared standards.

Question 3

The cosmopolitan school is…

Answer 3

• The school of thought that humanity is one signal moral community regardless of state, culture or levels of economic development, and thus the same rules apply to all humans and all are treated equally.

Question 4

• Two international laws or treaties on human rights

Answer 4

• 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

- 1984 Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Question 5

Universality versus Religion

Answer 5

-Islam, which generally does not permit apostasy and a number of specific Saudi laws, such as those that forbid the practice of other religions.

Question 6

The case for intervention is based on the following arguments…

Answer 6

• Humanitarian intervention does not prohibit the use of force against “political independence” and “territorial integrity” and so is no in breach of the UN Charter
• The international community has a moral responsibility to intervene to protect civilians from genocide and mass killings
• Allowing for humanitarian intervention will only encourage the spread of violence and the use of force and thus threaten global peace and security
• Intervention is rarely driven purely by humanitarian factors and thus leads to selectivity in responses.

Question 7

The Responsibility to protect doctrine states…

Answer 7

• If a state faults to protect it’s citizens from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity, the international community had an obligation to protect said peoples.

Question 8

Obligations to strangers vs national interest…

Answer 8

• The argument that states with the capacity to help those less fortunate have a moral responsibility to do so. - The cosmopolitan school of thought represents this argument as it’s based on a single moral community.
• On the other hand, realists argue that the converse is true, that states have no obligations to those outside their borders.