The Rise of Responsibility in World Politics

Studying moral responsibility in world politics sheds light on changing accountability relations, justice and legitimacy in global governance.

The concept of responsibility has emerged as central to the study of international politics. This book explores responsibility as a cross-cutting theme spanning across three governance sectors: the environment, business, and security. The authors explore how the rise of responsibility implicates underlying moral values in global politics.The concept of responsibility has emerged as central to the study of international politics. This book explores the integral role of responsibility within the context of global crises such as the responsibility to address climate change, manage financial crises, and intervene with political conflicts. Vetterlein and Hansen-Magnusson address responsibility as a conceptual tool in its own right, existing at the intersection of accountability and legitimacy and spanning across governance sectors of the environment, business, and security. This practice-based approach to the study of responsibility maps similarities and difference across policy fields and reveals the diverse moral actors responsible for negotiating responsibility. The emergence of responsibility further implicates underlying moral values and policy-making within the context of global politics. The Rise of Responsibility in World Politics addresses not only individual agency, but also how questions of community play a role in broader negotiations around the meaning of responsibility.