Description

Communitarianism is an intriguing social theory that states community and the social bonds of family, traditional values, and education are the main building blocks of a new supranational global order. One of its strongest proponents, Amitai Etzioni, posits that the "transnational threats facing humankind today are so overwhelming that soon all nations will experience a convergence of values and priorities, which will lay the groundwork for eventual global governance. " The eight articles presented by the August 2005 issue of American Behavioral Scientist offer a fascinating and spirited dialogue regarding the concurrences and contradictions of communitarianism within the context of international relations. They tackle a range of topics first addressed in Etzioni's treatise From Empire to Community: A New Approach to International Relations, including:

Evaluating the European Union as a test case for communitarianism (Goldgeier)
How communitarianism predicts that U.S. hegemony will be transcended and how this fits in with the U.S.', particularly the Bush administration's, grand strategy (Hentz)
Does Etizioni's nationalistic approach to U.S. foreign policy negate communitarianism's ethical problem-solving framework? (Falk)
Communitarian Realism and the emergence of common norms through coping with global challenges (Gvosdev)
The four fatal flaws of Communitarianism (Gray)
Whether sustainable economic or political integration is possible without global social assimilation taking place (Müllerson)
Etzioni's Response, including a quick summary of the communitarian paradigm (Etzioni)
A call by Ambassador Max M. Kampelman to bolster international community through the elimination of all nuclear weapons, the establishment of a national voluntary Civilian Conservation Corps for 18-21 year olds, and the creation of a new education incentive along the lines of the Roosevelt G.I. Bill of Rights.

This issue offers a balanced view of a much-disputed theory and belongs in the library of every political scientist, sociologist, and everyone interested in the state of the world around them.