The notion of recognition, drawing on the philosophy of Hegel, has become increasingly central to international debates in recent years, yet there have been few attempts to critically examine new theoretical positions and empirical analyses of its possible meanings, limits and manifestations. Recognition and global politics examines the potential and limitations of the discourse of recognition as a strategy for reframing justice and injustice within contemporary world affairs. Drawing on resources from social and political theory and international relations theory as well as other areas...

Recognition and global politics examines the potential and limitations of the discourse of recognition as a strategy for reframing justice and injustice within contemporary world affairs. Drawing on resources from social and political theory and international relations theory, as well as feminist theory, postcolonial studies and social psychology, this ambitious collection explores a range of political struggles, social movements and sites of opposition that have shaped certain practices and informed contentious debates in the language of recognition.

While skepticism about the role of moral considerations in international politics has been influential within the discipline of international relations (IR), those writing on topics such as war, peace, rights and trade up until the twentieth century took seriously the importance of ethical values and moral debates. The 1990s and 2000s have seen a substantial growth of attention to the ways in which IR conceives and analyzes themes of an ethical nature, and how issues, problems and policies involving ethics are addressed by a variety of actors within the international system. This...