Justice and Foreign Policy

Michael Blake's ambitious, thought-provoking book engages with some of the most basic issues in global justice ... well worth the read * Cindy Holder, University of Victoria, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Michael Blake's ambitious, thought-provoking book engages with some of the most basic issues in global justice ... Blake has opened up a host of interesting questions and made visible many questions that were already there but have hitherto been difficult to see ... stimulating, interesting and original. * Cindy Holder, University of Victoria *
What emerges are the contours of a theory of justice and foreign policy that tries both to reach the highly valued principles of liberalism and give practical guidance in the current world. It is precisely this which makes Justice and Foreign Policy such an important book, setting high standards for our thinking about foreign policy. * Erik De Bom, KU Leuven, Political Studies Review *
In this marvellous book, Michael Blake defends a new approach to foreign policy in a liberal state. He forcefully argues that liberal states ought to act to promote their values around the world, interveningwhere prudent and effectivein favour of democracy in illiberal societies. While Blake denies that liberal states are obliged to extend foreigners the very same distributive entitlements they grant their own citizens, he claims that wealthy countries must act to remedy severe poverty and to protect democratic self-determination abroad. Along the way, he develops a profound account of liberal justice, based in respect for individual autonomy and the justification of coercive state power. Blakes work represents a major advance in our thinking about justice and international affairs. * Professor Anna Stilz, Princeton University *
In a time of disillusion--with liberal internationalism, intervention, and indeed with liberalism itself--a young philosopher, Michael Blake, has offered a bracing, rigorous and highly realistic account of how we could begin to believe in a liberal foreign policy again, one which unashamedly promotes autonomy, freedom and justice while avoiding hubris, militarism and self-delusion. This is an important book, modest and likeable in the way it makes its arguments, yet hugely ambitious in its desire to restore faith in the liberal democratic cause. * Professor Michael Ignatieff, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University *
In Justice and Foreign Policy, Michael Blake exhibits the insight and clarity for which he is rightly prized. This impressive book, which is a model of how to do philosophy that is at once theoretically deep and practically significant, is sure to cement Blake's standing as among the best, most important political philosophers writing today. * Professor Christopher Heath Wellman, Washington University in St. Louis *