Solidarism and After: Global Governance, International Society and the Normative 'Turn' in International Relations

Shifts in the practices of global governance require rethinking of the constitutive norms of international society. In particular, challenges to the normative foundations of international society have arisen with the expansion of practices of international governance and a ‘solidarist’ turn in international society. These developments suggest the necessity of a pursuing a consensus on their legitimacy, which requires reflection on how to develop such a consensus among the members of international society and, beyond that, on whether this consensus should reflect not just interests of states but the values of their citizens as well. This paper also discusses the means whereby consensus and consent for the practices of global governance and a solidarist international society may be achieved, identifying recent thinking on the nature of good conversation and dialogical ethics as providing fruitful grounds from which this issue can be explored.