ABSTRACT
Seyla Benhabib's The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens is likely to remain an enduringly influential contribution to contemporary political theory and cosmopolitan thought. In turning to the needs of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from a cosmopolitan worldview, Benhabib makes a notable and ambitious contribution to the subject. Benhabib's cosmopolitanism is not the only possibility for what the future of cosmopolitan politics may look like, but it presents a set of thought-provoking ideas that are ripe for debate and reconsideration. The main ideas contained in The Rights of Others have been debated since its publication by scholars in the fields of law, political theory, multicultural studies, and human rights, among others. Benhabib responds to the pressing challenges by proposing a model for membership rights that is more democratically inclusive, while still acknowledging the rights of states to defend their national borders.
