The Political Ethics of Unipolarity and Multipolarity

• In Event: Justice and Inequality: Democracy and Great Powers

Abstract

Multipolarity has become a fashionable concept once again, as commentators, scholars, and even the President of Russia predict the end of the unipolar structure of the international system. In general, this effort to describe the current state of international affairs, as well as their trajectory, is an attempt to understand the world in which we live. However, multipolarity and unipolarity are also consciously chosen political goals, not merely ways to describe the international system. As chosen goals, they reflect a sort of moral valence—unipolarity is seen as beneficial for one set of reasons, while multipolarity is advocated for another. This paper uses political philosophy, especially classical political philosophy, to explore the ways in which unipolarity and multipolarity reflect different visions of a just world order and, consequently, a specific kind of international regime.

Author

• Stephen Patrick Sims, Rochester Institute of Technology