Intermediate Examination Paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics – General and Theories of International Politics, grade: 1.5, The Australian National University, language: English, abstract: Contemplating ethics, culture and furthermore their interplay in world politics might be a
perpetual impasse devoid of a teleological clarity. Disregarding the two concepts on the other
hand, as irrelevant to the study of International Relations (IR), as it is best carried out by
Realpolitik and studied with scientific sterility ala Kenneth Waltz, would be myopic on a
number of levels. Before framing the meaning of ethics and culture, and discussing their
possible interplay in world politics, the following question is proposed to perhaps establish a
conceptual link between the two: Can we find a fruitful starting point by perceiving morality
as a connector of ethics and culture to world politics?
Of all the areas of philosophy, ethics is the one that seems most significant to people, and it is
no overstatement to say that everyone is engaged in ethical deliberation at every turn in life.
Ethics, as a major philosophical branch, is derived from the ancient Greek term ethikos, or the
meaning of living. Its primary focus is to discern between right and wrong ergo it aims to
understand the ‘nature of morality’. Or put differently, the ‘social quality’ of ethics ‘forces
each of us to feel that our identity is also defined by our relations to others’. In a world
which is transformed by a growing ‘interconnectedness and intensification of relations,
among states and societies’ summarized in the buzzword of globalization, the social quality
of ethics calls for refinement. The veil of ignorance has been vigorously lifted from our eyes
by the effects of global transformation, and it becomes an imperative to avoid limiting ethics
to kin relationship or confined to territorial bounded Westphalian sovereignty. In short ethics
is about ‘humanizing the experience of the other’, which is in its logical extension an
individual moral choice to be righteous in a global as well as national and even local context.
Thus sound moral values raise tough choices; and tough choices are never straightforward
especially in the prevailing anarchical system of world politics. Just like ethics culture is not a ‘singular thing’, but rather a ‘loose collection of [assumed]
characteristics’ of a community.
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Dr. Lüdert is Assistant Professor and Associate Program Director in the School of Applied Leadership at City University of Seattle.
Jan holds a Ph D in International Relations from the department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He is a Liu Institute for Global Issues scholar alumnus and recipient of the Killam Graduate Teaching Award. Jan holds a First Class Honors Masters of Arts in International Relations from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Business Administration and Public Policy from Hamburg University for Economics and Politics. Jan studied at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania focusing on sociology and economics. He coordinated grassroots’ community programs in Botswana for Skillshare International.
His research includes Leadership Theory, International Relations, Political Theory, Intergovernmental Organizations, Non-State Actors, Transnational and Cyberspace Politics, Global Norms, Human Rights. Jan is deeply involved in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research projects. Jan writes for the Ivory Tower, an E-International relations blog.
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