The Moral Standing of the State in International Politics

‘Vaha’s book offers a comprehensive Kantian theory of the moral personality of the state situated in the ongoing climate crisis that challenges widespread assumptions about Kant’s ideas of international right. Her in-depth critique of the exclusionary practices in the international society shows that the assertion of the superiority of liberal states is incompatible with a truly Kantian conception of the equal moral standing of all political communities.’
-Professor Macarena Marey, University of Buenos Aires

‘The author provides us with a valuable effort to address a key normative puzzle in international politics, what she labels the “Moral Standing Problem” in which states are assigned responsibilities without having any of the correlative rights associated with moral agency. Through a deep engagement with the practical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Vaha provides a novel account of how we might conceptualise the state as a complete moral person with a right to exist, and illustrates the value of her account by addressing the question of the international community’s obligations arising from the potential physical extinction of low-lying insular states.’
-Dr Harry D. Gould, Florida International University