This provocative and original book provides a concise explanation of why global politics must be understood in ethical terms. Mervyn Frost illustrates the theory with a series of detailed case studies on the Iraq war, the war on terror, Iran, the use of private military companies, migration and terrorism and in so doing he forces the reader to confront their own necessary engagement as ethical citizens of a global society.

Mervyn Frost is Professor of International Relations and Head of the Department of War Studies, King's College, London, UK. Educated at Stellenbosch and Oxford, he has held appointments at Rhodes University, the University of Natal, and the University of Kent. His major publications are: Towards a Normative Theory of International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 1986), Ethics in International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and Constituting Human Rights: Global Civil Society and the Society of Democratic States (London: Routledge, 2002).

Introduction 1. The ubiquity of ethics in international relations 2. Global ethical practices 3. Ethical incoherence: Individual rights versus states' rights 4. Global terrorism understood in ethical terms 5. Defending anarchies