Abstract
The idea of the State as embodying moral virtue has a long, mostly inwardly focussed history. In international relations thought, sporadic Liberal explorations of the state as a ‘good international citizen’ have been vulnerable to Realist scepticism or dismissal. The Cold War's end saw a revival of Liberal enthusiasm for the Good State, but the translation of this into the foreign policies of key Western states generated new lines of critique focussing on the underlying universalism. Drawing upon aspects of much less-discussed Scandinavian internationalist discourse, the possibility of a more modest, open and thus sustainable understanding of the Good State is explored.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bull, H. (1984) Justice in International Relations. 1983–4 Hagey Lectures. Waterloo, ON: University of Waterloo.
Bulley, D. (2009) Ethics as Foreign Policy: Britain, the EU and the Other. London: Routledge.
Dolman, A.J. (1979) The like-minded countries and the new international order: Past, present and future prospects. Cooperation and Conflict 14: 57–85.
Donnelly, J. (1998) Human rights: A new standard of civilisation? International Affairs 74 (1): 1–24.
Evans, G. and Grant, B. (1991) Australia's Foreign Relations in the World of the 1990s. Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press.
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. (2009) Implementing the Responsibility to Protect The 2009 General Assembly Debate: An Assessment. New York: Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies.
Guizot, F. (1837) General History of Civilization in Europe: From the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution. Oxford: DA Talboys.
Havel, V. (1992) Summer Meditations. London: Faber.
Holm, H-H. (1992) The myth of the responsive north. Journal of Peace Research 29 (1): 15–120.
Hook, S. (1995) National Interest and Foreign Aid. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Ignatieff, M. (2003) Empire Lite: Nation-Building in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. New York: Vintage.
Kegley Jr, C.W. (1993) The Neoidealist moment in international studies? Realist myths and the new international realities. International Studies Quarterly 37: 131–146.
Lawler, P. (1997) Scandinavian exceptionalism and European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies 35 (4): 565–594.
Lawler, P. (2007) Janus-faced solidarity: Danish internationalism reconsidered. Cooperation and Conflict 42 (1): 101–116.
Lawson, S. (ed.) (1995) The New Agenda for Global Security: Cooperating for Peace and Beyond. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Linklater, A. (1998) The Transformation of Political Community: The Ethical Foundations of the Post-Westphalian Era. Oxford: Polity.
Linklater, A. and Suganami, H. (2006) The English School of International Relations: A Contemporary Reassessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lumsdaine, D.H. (1993) Moral Vision in International Politics: The Foreign Aid Regime 1949–1989. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mazower, M. (2006) An international civilisation? Empire, internationalism and the crisis of the mid-twentieth century. International Affairs 82 (3): 553–566.
Mazower, M. (2008) Paved intentions: Civilization and imperialism. Fall, 2008 (Online), http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/paved-intentions-civilization-and-imperialism, accessed 3 March 2012.
Mazower, M. (2009) No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Mouritzen, H. (1995) The Nordic model as a foreign policy instrument: Its rise and fall. Journal of Peace Research 32: 9–21.
Niebuhr, R. (1932) Moral Man, Immoral Society. London: Scribner.
Orford, A. (1999) Muscular humanitarianism: Reading the narratives of the new interventionism. European Journal of International Law 10: 679–711.
Pratt, C. (ed.) (1989) Internationalism Under Strain: The North-South Policies of Canada, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Richey, L.A. (2001) In search of feminist foreign policy: Gender, development and state identity. Cooperation and Conflict. 36: 177–212.
Russett, B. (2010) Liberalism. In: T. Dunne, M. Kurki and S. Smith (eds.) International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sellström, T. (1999) Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa. Vol 1: Formation of a Popular Opinion. Copenhagen: NIAS.
Södersten, B. (1989) Sweden: Towards a realistic internationalism. In: C. Pratt (ed.) Internationalism Under Strain: The North-South Policies of Canada, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 155–180.
Stokke, O. (ed.) (1989) Western Middle Powers and Global Poverty: The Determinants of the Aid Policies of Canada, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Uppsala: The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
Trädgårdh, L. (2002) Sweden and the EU: Welfare state nationalism and the spectre of ‘Europe’. In: L. Hansen and O. Wæver (eds.) European Integration and National Identity: The Challenge of the Nordic States. London: Routledge.
Vincent, J. (1986) Human Rights and International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wæver, O. (1992) Nordic nostalgia: Northern Europe after the cold war. International Affairs 68 (1): 77–102.
Wheeler, N.J. (2002) Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wheeler, N.J. and Dunne, T. (1998) Good international citizenship: A third way for British foreign policy. International Affairs 74 (4): 847–870.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lawler, P. The ‘Good State’ debate in international relations. Int Polit 50, 18–37 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2012.26
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2012.26