Global ethics in practice

ABSTRACT

This paper is a study of ethics – in practice. It examines how people in the world, and more particularly in rich countries, have responded to the ethical challenges associated with recent crises: climate change, COVID-19 and international migration. What has been the nature of the discourse? What international agreements have been made? Have they, in practice, been followed up? The evidence is that – in practice – nations, and by implication their citizens, have displayed very little obligation to those beyond their boundaries. A few exceptions may, however, be noted; where citizens of ‘nearby’ countries receive preferential treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Global ethics
• climate change
• COVID-19
• migration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Desmond McNeill

Desmond McNeill, political economist, is Professor Emeritus and former Director at the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) University of Oslo, Norway. He graduated in economics from the University of Cambridge in 1969 and received a PhD in Economics at University College London in 1988. His books include Fetishism and the Theory of Value: Reassessing Marx in the 21st Century, Palgrave MacMillan 2021; Development Issues in Global Governance: Public-Private Partnerships and Market Multilateralism, Routledge 2007 (with Benedicte Bull); Global Poverty, Ethics and Human Rights: The Role of Multilateral Organisations, Routledge 2009 (with Asunción Lera St. Clair); Global Institutions and Development: Framing the World? Routledge 2004 (ed. with M. Bøås). Member of the Lancet - University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health. Member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. Most recent article: Ethics and Human Rights in the World Bank in The Elgar Companion to the World Bank (Vetterlein and Schmidtke, eds.) Elgar Forthcoming.