Quora Answer: Is Morality Relevant in International Relations?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is morality relevant in international relations?”

Many people would say that, but that is not really true. In fact, morality may be dangerous.  The problem with morality is that it is amorphous, and people make the mistake of assuming that across different cultures and regions, we all share the same conception of morality.  That is not true.  If our understanding of morality were universal, we would not have ethnic, religious, and other forms of tribalistic strife.  We all claim one moral law for ourselves, and one for others.

I would be extra wary when sitting at the negotiating table with a man who claims to speak on behalf of his god, and cite religion as the basis for his decisions and actions.  God is a convenient tool to justify the greatest outrages.  When I say that, people think the Taliban and ISIS, but they are non-state actors. In the greater strategic theatre, they are minor inconveniences, killing their own kind in poor countries, and the odd foreigner.  Their attacks in Western liberal democracies are a convenient excuse to justify laws that strengthen the power of the state at the expense of accountability.

The greatest danger is found in people like Republican Party, and the Conservatives in the US.  They invoke god to justify jingoism, military adventurism and the genocide.  And the Religious Right cheers them on.  American military intervention all over the world has killed more people than ISIS, Al Qaeda, and all the so-called Islamic terrorists.  They use god to justify confronting China, provoking Russia, and intervening in Iran.  And this is the most obvious example.  There are such “moral” men in power, in different religions all over the world, from Islamist parties, to Hindutva extremists, to Buddhist exceptionalists.

In international relations, we do not want to deal with moralists, because moralists are ultimately irrational.  We want the self-interested, the corrupt, and the power hungry.  These are the lesser evils we know, and we can address.  We get what we want by appearing to give these people what they want.  And if the offer is good enough, they would sell their soul.  That is how international relations is conducted.  We are all devils, bargaining with other devils.