ABSTRACT
In this brief monograph I argue that it is not possible to gain a proper understanding of the international relations of our time without taking the notion of individual human rights seriously and that the acquisition of such an understanding cannot be achieved through some simple process of observation, but requires of us that we engage in ethical argument about the proper place of human rights in our contemporary international practices. This involvement with ethical theory is not something we do after having come to grips in some direct ‘empirical’ and norm free way with the key features of how things stand in the practices of world politics, but is part of the very process required in order to understand our contemporary world. Insofar as effective participation in international relations depends on the participants having a proper understanding of the practices within which they are acting, an understanding of the place of human rights in these practices is a precondition for effective action in this domain. This kind of engagement with ethical questions concerning human rights is not something which may be confined to the specialists in the subfield of political ethics, but is something with which all participants in international relations (academics and lay people alike) engage in some measure.
