The Ethics of Recognition in International Relations: A Global and Cross-Cultural Perspective

Recognition is a concept that has recently been employed by political thinkers in the analysis and addressing of the growing demand for recognition by those who have been marked racially, sexually, culturally, and ethnically as different. Such a demand -has been launched in a number of strands in contemporary politics both in domestic and international spheres. Central to the demand - the struggle - for recognition is the idea that unwillingness to recognize the equal worth of different others give way to exclusion and oppression, and consequently to injustice. Recognition is not only a vital need for formation of the sense of personhood, but it is also a necessary condition for a just life-world: recognition as justice. In other words, recognition, in its fullest sense, is both an authentic way of expressing the sense of nationhood/statehood, and an operative concept in the liberation from patterns of social devaluation, exclusion, and invisible forms of repression.;In light of these observations, the argument must be advanced that the full recognition of nations/states must be considered as the most basic expression of their selfhood/nationhood. By addressing the increasing demand for a more inclusive international relation, theorizing of recognition also gives urgency to the removal of the patterns of exclusion and oppression.;Theorizing recognition involves an examination of the historical backgrounds in which the different senses of nationhood/statehood have been developed. Such differences must not become the subject of the already dominant arrangements in the life-world if a democratically more transparent and just international public sphere must be achieved. In other words, by acknowledging such differences, the theory of recognition has potentials to accommodate cross cultural/ethical divisions and bring disparate voices together in a more participatory and inclusive manner.;The most relevant to the conception of recognition is the impacts of the process of globalization on enhancing the scope of the public sphere, and more specifically, providing opportunity for the marginalized and silenced forces to become conscious of their unequal share in the life-world. This consciousness motivates the struggle for recognition through democratization of the public sphere both internally and internationally. Indeed, in the globalizing world, where a common destiny is being experienced, the struggle for recognition is further heated by implication, and theoretically, advances the possibility of a more effective participation in global governance.