IWM Junior Visiting Fellows Conferences, Vol. VIII/2 © 1999 by the author Readers may redistribute this article to other individuals for noncommercial use, provided that the text and this note remain intact. This article may not be reprinted or redistributed for commercial use without prior written permission from the author. If you have any questions about permissions, please contact Klaus Nellen at IWM, Spittelauer Laende 3, A - 1090 Vienna, Fax +(431) 31358-30, e-mail <
[email protected]>. Preferred Citation: Voina-Motoc, Iulia, Moral-Rule and Rule of Law in International Politics: Common Sense, Political Realism, Skepticism, in: A Decade of Transformation, IWM Junior Visiting Fellows Conferences, Vol. 8: Vienna 1999 Moral Rule and Rule of Law in International Politics: Common Sense, Political Realism, Skepticism Iulia Voina-Motoc Can a state be moral? The question does violence to common opinion-arousing re- actions which might be attached to irony. Wouldn't it prove better for the speech on ethics in international relations to be included in a history of utopia? The notion of morals in an oversimplified acceptance as it is implied in this sentence is that of the religions of salvation or of Kantian autonomy applied to states after World War I. Accordingly, one can understand how deeply and generally prevalent are the postulates of political realism when applied to international relations today, thus amounting to reductionist assertions of the definition of morals. Taking into account the association between political realism and empiricism, one also can understand the massive refusal of political philosophy to analyze politics beyond the state borders.