ABSTRACT
How should states conduct their foreign policy? When, if ever, may a state engage in protectionist policies? Should wealthy states write off debts from impoverished states? Should states seek to reform currently existing forms of international economic cooperation and international organizations (like the United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD, the IMF, the EU and the WTO)? Should they discourage trade with regimes which repress their citizens and deny them fundamental rights? In order to answer these pressing questions we need to establish the general criteria by which one should assess the conduct of states. We need, that is, to address the following abstract questions: What weight should states give to the interests of people who are not citizens of their own states? Should they seek to advance the well-being of all human beings? Should their foreign policy be committed solely to the promotion of the ‘national interest’?
