ABSTRACT
One striking feature of contemporary international political economy (IPE) is the virtual absence of any sustained discussion of problems and concepts associated with moral theory or political philosophy. For all the rich and varied contributions of IPE to the study of global capitalism and political structures such as the state or international organizations it gives rise to, there are arguably few, if any, studies that self-consciously cross the boundaries between IPE and international political theory. A random overview of the key textbooks in IPE reveals little or no direct engagement with notions such as distributive justice, exploitation, fairness, obligations, or rights.1 For their part, political philosophers who have engaged with the moral issues thrown up by the workings of global capitalism, are generally loath to develop analyses of the dynamics of this system.2 Sophisticated and challenging as some of the “new normative theories” in International Relations have been, they rarely seek to explain the very phenomena – global economic inequality, disparities in state power, global social hierarchies – they aim to condemn.3
