Economic justice in an unfair world: towards a level playing field By Ethan B. Kapstein Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006

Kapstein begins by stating that ‘If any norm characterizes international economic relations, it is probably that they should be carried out on a “level playing field†’ (p. xi). He then sets out to offer his vision of what such leveling would amount to. The book offers what he calls a ‘liberal internationalist’ perspective on global economic justice, a view defined in opposition to two other views introduced and explored throughout: communitarianism, on the one hand, which according to him takes states too seriously by denying, beyond a certain minimal level, obligations to those who do not belong to them; and cosmopolitanism, on the other hand, which he thinks does not take states seriously enough by failing to acknowledge, to a sufficient degree, the special moral importance of shared citizenship. By way of contrast, liberal internationalism takes states as given, but acknowledges that there are moral obligations tying together states into a society of states, a society that, according to Kapstein's ideal, is supposed to be inclusive, participatory, and welfare-enhancing for all states.