One World: The Ethics of Globalization by Peter Singer

From the Publisher

One of the world's most influential philosophers here considers the ethical issues surrounding globalization, showing how a global ethic rather than a nationalistic approach can provide illuminating answers to important problems. In a new preface, Peter Singer discusses how the recent Iraq war and its aftermath have changed the prospects for the ethical approach he advocates.Q: What was your original idea for the book? A: When people talk about globalization, they usually mean the lowering of barriers to free trade and the flow of investment. And they usually don't see these as ethical questions. I wanted to bring together several different issues that are also part of living in a more globalized world and show that they are, at their core, ethical questions. So as well as trade issues, I cover climate change, intervention across national borders to protect human rights, and aid from rich nations to poor ones. Q: Have world events in the past three years further shaped that idea and your arguments? A: Definitely. The attacks on 9/11 showed that even the mightiest power the world has never known is vulnerable to being attacked. But more significantly, the crisis over Iraq posed a choice between taking the path of international cooperation, and that of unilateral action. It was also a choice between the rule of law and the rule of force. Unfortunately, the United States made the wrong choice. Q: What do you hope the book will accomplish? A: I hope it will contribute to people seeing these questions as ethical issues and to looking at ethics from a more global-and therefore less national-perspective.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

SINGER: ...[V]aluable reading for anyone interested in seeing whether globalization can be made to work for the benefit of many.

Foreign Affairs

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, what are the obligations of nation-states to people? Famed bioethicist Singer argues that the dangers and inequalities generated by globalization demand that we rethink the privileged rights of state sovereignty and devise new ethical principles of international conduct. In his view, the search for widely acceptable principles of global fairness is not simply an intellectual exercise but an imperative that even rich and powerful countries ignore at their peril; we cannot address the vulnerabilities that globalization creates without a shared belief around the world that the system is legitimate and just. Singer then looks for practical ethical principles in the thorny areas of global warming, trade, humanitarian intervention, and foreign aid. His willingness to delve into the prosaic details of agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and the World Trade Organization is one of the book's biggest strengths. In the end, he acknowledges that he does not know whether economic globalization has ultimately helped the world's poor. But he argues that the forces of integration require that we introduce more accountability in the ways that global decisions are made — and look for a common understanding of fairness and justice.

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Table of Contents