Terrorism, Human Rights, and the Case for World Government

One of the nation's leading military ethicists, Louis P. Pojman argues that globalism and cosmopolitanism motivate the need for greater international cooperation based on enforceable international law. The best way to realize the promises of globalism and cogent moral arguments for cosmopolitanism, Pojman contends, is through the establishment of a World Government. In very readable prose, Pojman begins with a description of the growing menace of non-state terrorism on people everywhere, and distinguishes 'old-style' from 'new-style' terrorism. In Chapter 2, he examines the virtues and vices of nationalism, comparing them to the promises and problems of cosmopolitanism. Pojman ultimately argues that enforceable international law which will promote peace and curtail terrorism requires that we endorse a form of 'soft nationalism.' This form of nationalism is ultimately compatible with a limited, republican form of world government. Chapter 3 addresses universal human rights, arguing against the notion that they are an ethnocentric product of Western culture, and providing an overall justification of human rights as correlative to moral duties. Pojman concludes on a hopeful note, characterizing his proposal for a World Government as an effective counter-measure, albeit ambitious and controversial, to terrorism and its causes.

Louis P. Pojman (1935-2005) was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point and Life-Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge University. A prominent and highly regarded scholar of both theoretical and applied ethics, Pojman authored over fifty books and was a visiting lecturer at numerous colleges.