Political theory, sometimes also called “normative political theory”, is a subfield of the disciplines of philosophy and political science that addresses conceptual, normative, and evaluative questions concerning politics and society, broadly construed. Examples are: When is a society just? What does it mean for its members to be free? When is one distribution of goods socially preferable to an...

The primary purpose of government is to secure public goods that cannot be achieved by free markets. The Coordination Principle tells us to consolidate sovereign power in a single institution to overcome collective action problems that otherwise prevent secure provision of the relevant public goods. There are several public goods that require such coordination at the global level, chief among t...

Over the centuries historians and scholars have documented the devastating effects that war has upon society; yet whilst it is known how destructive warfare can be, wars continue to be waged. There have, however, been attempts to provide rules and regulations to limit the damaging effects of conflict. The Greeks attempted to place restraints on the recourse and conduct of war, whilst the Romans...