ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part provides theoretical insight and empirical examples of the diversity. It addresses three themes: institutions, liberalism, and contestation. Rights and justice can be advanced without formal institutions and outside of legal frameworks through practices of contestation and debates around recognition and identity. Ethics and institutions can be understood in a diversity of ways. The combination of liberalism and contestation reveal why a focus on institutions can provide new insights into ethics and international relations. Global institutions are sometimes seen as embodying the best possible outcomes in global politics. Because of the anarchic nature of international affairs, no global authority can coerce states and leaders to act in conformity with human rights or global justice. International institutions provide a halfway house of sorts, where international actors can slowly achieve global norms and make a better world possible.
