Peace, Justice and International Order: Decent Peace in John Rawls' The Law of Peoples - Tapa dura

"The question this book engages with is crucial to understanding the relevance of Rawls's liberalism to contemporary international affairs. Exploring the question of whether there are (or could be) decent non-liberal societies is essential to establishing the boundaries of toleration in international affairs. These are the boundaries of just war, of humanitarian aid and intervention, of stability and justice. They tell us whether a liberal conception of global justice is capable of being the object of an overlapping consensus between morally and culturally distinct societies. Annette Forster has accepted this challenge and produced a fascinating study of 'the decent peace thesis' that will give students and scholars in the field much to think about." - Peter Sutch, University of Cardiff, UK

John Rawls' The Law of Peoples has been criticized for not being sufficiently realistic or for being too tolerant towards non-liberal ideas and thus insufficiently liberal. Genuine and valuable contributions to questions of international peace and justice have been overshadowed by these critiques. Peace, Justice and International Order offers a new approach to Rawls' international theory, contributes to the discourse on international peace and justice and bridges a gap between Rawls' theory and the reality of international relations. By exploring reference points to the international realm in identifying decent peoples, exploring the principles of fair international cooperation and the Society of Peoples as an international institution, and introducing the idea of a 'decent peace', it substantiates the path Rawls draws for a just and stable peace as a model for international relations.