New Wine and Old Bottles: International Politics and Ethical Discourse

Jean Bethke Elshtain, the 1996 Hesburgh Lecturer on Ethics and Public Policy, challenges a powerful strand in western political thinking that separates the political and ethical realms. This is manifest above all in the claim that although the rule of justice might pertain between citizens, force is the ultimate arbiter between states and would-be states. But this claim fails to capture the many complex ways that political bodies deal with one another through norms and rules and not simply by force. Elshtain captures this alternative dimension by examining two dominant currents in international politics: sovereignty and nationalism. She shows the ways in which the historic understanding of sovereignty was deeply dependent on theological concepts, and demonstrates that much of contemporary life is marked by the mapping of concepts of sovereignty onto our understanding, not just of states but of persons.

Over the years, many experts predicted confidently that the power of nationalism would abate as ＂rationalism＂ and ＂internationalism＂ spread. Elshtain explains why this prediction was flawed and accounts for the emergence of today’s ＂new nationalism,＂ the political passion of our time. She asks, Knowing the terrible cost of nationalistic excess, is there a defensible version of national identity and loyalty? With the late Sir Isaiah Berlin, Elshtain argues ＂yes.＂ In her provocative epilogue, Elshtain asks whether there is room for forgiveness in international politics, and concludes on the speculative and hopeful note that ways might be found to break repetitive cycles of vengeance.

Together with Elshtain’s lectures, this volume offers responses by Fred Dallmayr and Martha Merritt and a foreword by Raimo Väyrynen, John M. Regan, Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute.

Jean Bethke Elshtain (1941-2013) was the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a former Guggenheim Fellow. Her books include Democracy on Trial (1995), Augustine and the Limits of Politics (Notre Dame Press 1995), and Real Politics: At the Center of Everyday Life (1997).

Fred Dallmayr is Packey J. Dee Professor Emeritus in philosophy and political science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author and editor of over fifty books, including Spiritual Guides: Pathfinders in the Desert (University of Notre Dame Press, 2017).

Martha L. Merritt is Dean and the Carole M. Weinstein Chair of Interational Education at the University of Richmond. She worked at the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame before coming to Richmond. She established programs, internships and long-term partnerships abroad, as well as overseeing Chicago’s Center in Paris. Her goals for international education include integrating local and global learning on challenges such as sustainability, facilitating meaningful engagement with other cultures, and empowering international students as vital community members.

Raimo Väyrynen is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, and Director of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland.