Power and Responsibility in World Affairs: Reformation versus Transformation

by Cathal J. Nolan (Editor)

This volume presents the idea that great power carries with it great moral obligation to reform the international system. It is centrally concerned with the nature and operation of international moral norms. It shows that great secular power correlates to an increased moral responsibility for the just conduct of the world. This work also emphasizes the often overlooked fact that important normative constraints on power exist already, so that even Great powers must act with a degree of restraint and prudence. Highlights a timely debate about the goals and ambitions of liberal Great Powers, no longer constrained from intervention by the balance of terror of the Cold War. Features cross-cultural issues, essays, and contributors from Europe, North America, and Asia. Arguments are concerned with pragmatic international ethics, not theory, and are written in a clear and concise manner.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Cathal J. Nolan is Professor of History and Director of the International History Institute at Boston University.

The Allure of Battle: A History of Wars Have Been Won and Lost (Oxford UP, 2017), won the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History, as "the best book on military history in the English-speaking world, distinguished by its scholarship, contribution to the literature, and appeal to both a general and an academic audience." In 2019 it was named the first ever "Distinguished Book" by War on the Rocks, which deemed it "essential reading for national security professionals."

Nolan also publishes future military fiction under the pen name Kali Altsoba. His series The Orion War has reached seven volumes (and counting). His new series, on future space naval and marine war, is White Sails. Volume I, Destroyer, will be published in June 2020.