ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two main arguments. First, without deception or pretence, use language of state agency in the modern world. Second, since this language remains pervasive — in the mouths of politicians, in books of academic analysis, and the texts of international law — our theory of international relations must be revolutionized, and take as its object the moral concerns of all humankind. International theory must be normative: aimed to develop morality through norms, or accepted social practices, in the world as a whole — its purpose, to guide and to assist historic change. International law is, as David Runciman says, a series of fictions; and fictions can be made more elaborate, or subjected to differing interpretations. It has been demonstrated that changing from being a "non-nuclear-weapon" to a "declared nuclear-weapon" state is as easy, politically, as making the declaration. The international nuclear non-proliferation regime holds out a practical model for this process, if it is properly applied.
