Justice and International Order
East and West
Feng Zhang author Richard Ned Lebow author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:10th Jul '23
£64.00
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This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£22.99(9780197598405)
A comparative exploration of Western and Chinese understandings of justice and their possible use to reframe Sino-American relations and international governance. The concept of justice is central to politics: it justifies the ordering of society and the distribution of rewards. In Justice and International Order, Richard Ned Lebow and Feng Zhang compare and contrast Western and Chinese conceptions of justice. They argue that justice can almost invariably be reduced to the principles of fairness and equality, although they are developed and expressed differently in the two cultures. Lebow and Zhang show that there has been a noticeable shift in both in favoring equality over fairness in the modern era. They analyze the growing conflict between China and the West in the light of these conceptions of justice and show how they might be deployed to ameliorate it. The authors also offer a critique of what passes for global order and explore ways in which fairness and equality, and trade-offs between them, offer pathways to better and more peaceful worlds.
Readers leave this text with a better grasp on the causes of current international differences between China and the West and with some practical means toward future cooperative flourishing. * D. P. Prianti, CHOICE *
This is a big book. Ned Lebow and Feng Zhang collaborate in a kind of cultural hermeneutics to recover from both the classical Western and Chinese canons the root meaning of their respective conceptions of justice, and then explore how these different meanings play out in the international relations of the modern state system. While importantly different, what is shared between them is that justice for both seems to be a variable calculus of fairness and equality. * Roger T. Ames, Peking University *
Every political order claims some notion of justice. Comparing Chinese and Western conceptions of justice, ancient and modern, Lebow and Zhang contends that East-West's overlapping conceptions of justice may just provide a foundation for forestalling a possible conflict and building a more inclusive global order. A tour de force and an enlightening read for anyone who cares about our future. * Shiping Tang, Fudan distinguished professor, Fudan University, Shanghai, author of The Social Evolution of International Politics and The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development *
Lebow and Zhang make a compelling argument for the importance of smaller states and their inhabitants' perceptions of justice in international orders. Testing the effects of those perceptions on states' and individuals' behaviours would be a tremendous addition to their fascinating work. The book is an eclectic work of political theory, IR and foreign policy analysis, relevant to anyone interested in the processes and bases of international order. * International Affairs *
ISBN: 9780197598399
Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 22mm
Weight: 1g
324 pages