John Rawls and International Justice

In order to explain the concept of justice and its place in international arena, John Rawls formulates the principles that are arisen from international convention which can be reasonably and unanimously acceptable by all states, as a common and fair base. In examining the foreign policy of liberal democratic states, he measures and evaluates the relations of those states with other states, only with respect to the observance of mentioned principles on behalf of them. Thus, the relations of liberal democratic states with other liberal democracies (the so-called decent states) can happen freely and equally in all areas while those relations with the burdened states on the one hand and the outlaw states on the other are simply imaginable only in forms of economic assistance and just war respectively. In Rawls's viewpoint, this will be real meaning of justice in international arena. This concept today has provided the necessary theoretical foundations to justify the unilateral and arbitrary behavior of world powers in international arena.