Date: 2017
Type: Article
'Pro mundo mori'? : the problem of cosmopolitan motivation in war
Ethics & international affairs, 2017, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 143-165
EREZ, Lior, 'Pro mundo mori'? : the problem of cosmopolitan motivation in war, Ethics & international affairs, 2017, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 143-165
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/47706
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This article presents a new understanding of the problem of cosmopolitan motivation in war, comparing it to the motivational critique of social justice cosmopolitanism. The problem of cosmopolitanism's “motivational gap” is best interpreted as a political one, not a meta-ethical or ethical one. That is, the salient issue is not whether an individual soldier is able to be motivated by cosmopolitan concerns, nor is it whether being motivated by cosmopolitanism would be too demanding. Rather, given considerations of legitimacy in the use of political power, a democratic army has to be able to motivate its soldiers to take on the necessary risks without relying on coercion alone. Patriotic identification offers a way to achieve this in wars of national defense, but less so in armed humanitarian interventions (AHIs). Two potential implications are that either AHIs should be privatized or that national armies should be transformed to become more cosmopolitan.
Additional information:
First published online: 09 June 2017
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/47706
Full-text via DOI: 10.1017/S0892679417000053
ISSN: 1747-7093; 0892-6794
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
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