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Photographs indudad in tha original manuscript have baan reproduced xarographically in this copy. Higher quality 6* x 9” black and vdtite photographic prints are avaiabte for any photographs cr illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI dkacdy to order. Ban & Hows# Information and Learning 300 North ZSab Road, Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 8006214)600 umt UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE COVENANT AND INTERNATIONAL ETHICS: A DECONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By MARK DAVID GISMONDI Norman, Oklahoma 2000 UMI Number 9975787 UMI UMI Microform9975787 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17. United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 Copyright by MARK DAVID GISMONDI 2000 Ail Rights Reserved. COVENANT AND INTERNATIONAL ETHICS: A DECONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY A Dissertation APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE BY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A number of people contributed a great deal to this project. I would like to thank my chair, Dr. Greg Russell, for his tireless efforts on my behalf. From prospectus to finished product. Dr. Russell contributed a great deal to this work, having read it more times than anyone should ever have to. To the degree to which the text is legible and coherent, I know I have him to thank. Dr. Russell has also contributed greatly to ity understanding of the moral dilemmas that are abundant in politics, and in international affairs most of all. I would also like to thank Dr. Don Maletz, who has contributed abundantly to ray understanding of political theory. I have considered him a mentor and a source of great knowledge and wisdom on any number of subjects. As an advocate and friend, he also helped to make ny journey through graduate school much more enjoyable. Dr. Robert H. Cox helped me to understand the dangers of abandoning substance for procedure in the policy process, and gave me some very practical insights on how shared values work in the everyday politics of Europe. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Paul Tharp and Dr. Edward Sankowski for their very useful comments and insights. I would also like to thank Dr. James Conant and Dr. David Ray who introduced me to the works of Daniel Elazar and helped me to understand their connection to a way of thinking about the positive role government ought to play in any society. In addition, I want to thank Dr. Ray for his iv encouragement throughout my graduate years and for his insights on American government. Working as his assistant in PSC 1113 was one of the great educational experiences of ity graduate career. Thanks should also go to my parents and my wife for their support as this project was underway. They are all living examples of the bric shalom. And finally, thanks to Michael Palmer, a marvelous example of hesed, who set me on the path toward the social sciences, and gave me an understanding of the covenantal life. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................... iv ABSTRACT ................................................vii INTRODUCTION ............................................ 1 Chapter 1. FROM COVENANTS TO INTERESTS: THE EVOLUTION OF LIBERALISM ....................................... 25 2. THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE LOCKEAN TRANSITION . 72 3. DECONSTRUCTING LIBERALISM....................... 135 4. REALISM, TRAGEDY, AND POSTMODERNITY............. 202 5. COVENANTAL LIBERALISM: SOCIAL CAPITAL WITH MORAL PURPOSE ...........................................269 6. COVENANTAL EPISTEMOLOGY AND INTERNATIONAL ETHICS . 310 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................ 372 VI ABSTRACT The relationship between ethics and foreign policy is increasingly important given the current trend toward globalization. However, both of the leading international relations theories, liberalism and realism, suffer from an inability to integrate the ethical and pragmatic dimensions of foreign policy. This is because of the break between the transcendent ethics espoused by these theories and the uncertainty of their epistemic foundations. This dissertation examines the implications of the covenantal paradigm for meeting the theoretical challenges within international ethics. The covenantal paradigm, as described by Daniel Elazar's work on the covenant tradition in politics, provides a means of overcoming the problems of liberal and realist theories. Covenant's three essential principles are that power must be shared and limited, that liberty must be federal, or directed toward covenantal goals, and that policy-makers must have a sense of realism about the existence of evil and its political consequences. Liberalism's origins in covenantal political culture and thought make its premises similar in many ways to the covenantal paradigm. But the Enlightenment separation between ethics and epistemology, as well as the ever-increasing liberal attraction to hierarchical methods of problem­ solving, led to liberal imperialism and ethical confusion. As a result, liberal policy-makers often suffer from moral blindness and a tendency toward coercion in the international vii arena. Realises, on the other hand, often fall into a pattern of exercising an existential, private morality, indiscernible by those not directly involved in statecraft. This approach is unacceptable in an open society. Covenantal thought integrates ethics and interests in a manner similar to that found in social capital theories discussed by Robert Putnam, Francis Fukuyama, and James Coleman. This paradigm retains all the benefits of liberal theory, such as a means of discerning progress in history, a focus on human rights, and an empirical grounding, without falling into the trap of either impotent isolationism or liberal imperialism. Ultimately, the goal of a covenantal foreign policy is similar to Kant's vision of a foedus pacificum (a peaceful covenanted federation of nations) . Nations will also be subject to the norms of international law, the foundational premise of which is pacta sunt servanda, nations ought to keep their covenants. V l l l INTRODUCTION For three hundred years, liberalism served as a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding issues of politics and ethics. Since the time of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, both of whom documented and interpreted the events of the English Civil War, liberalism has been clarified and reshaped in radical ways, making it distinctive from its earlier incarnation in the seventeenth century. Despite these changes, the language used to describe our hopes and aspirations for the world continues to be broadly liberal in nature. No statesman can plausibly speak like a nineteenth century practitioner of realpolicik; even the most oppressive of late twentieth century regimes feel the need to make ethical justifications for their behavior that often sound vaguely liberal. Early in the nineteenth century, the epistemological assumptions that gave birth to liberalism were discarded, a fact which has had profound ethical implications. But liberal international theorists today espouse normative beliefs with global implications without taking these changes into account. Late-modem liberalism asserts a variety of public goods for morally autonomous individuals. Liberalism is heralded as the end of history while claiming to be ateleological. There is much that is beneficial in liberal practice, much to be preserved. This paper argues that, in order to do that, liberal theory must be revisited and revised, not destroyed. While realism has done much to bring to light the flaws of liberal international theory and practice, it cannot, by itself, serve as an alternative. For realism in its contemporary form cannot overcome its own ethical limitations. In many ways, it suffers from the same afflictions as liberalism. As such, both theories must be transcended rather than simply denied or synthesized. This work deals primarily with the ethical dimensions of liberal statecraft. Joel H. Rosenthal states, "the essential task of ethics and international affairs. [is] to show how policy decisions can be firmly rooted in ethics while avoiding the perils of moralism and absolutism on the one hand and empty relativism on the other. Liberalism