Description: Explains why military interventions with humanitarian goals consistently fail.
Brief description: Anthony F. Lang Jr. is Program Officer at The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
Review Quotes:
"...Lang's approach is ... more theoretically innovative than mainstream constructivism, attempting an unusual synthesis of political theorist Hannah Arendt and classical realist Hans Morgenthau." -- International Affairs
"...thoughtful and logical evaluation and explanation ... I suspect that we shall see other analyses of this sort in the near future." -- American Political Science Review
"Agency and Ethics provides a fresh look at the practice of intervention by linking it to the inevitable confrontation between ethics and politics. Lang points out that normative claims and state interests are theoretically and empirically irreconcilable. His turn to Hannah Arendt's agonal and narrative politics to challenge traditional views on ethics and interventionism is as unique as it is unexpected. The result of this analysis is a lucid and lively volume that will be of great interest to scholars of international relations." -- François Debrix, Florida International University