Cosmopolitanism: Power Matters

Cosmopolitanism is known primarily as a moral vision of world citizenship that transcends borders and political divisions. Rather than assuming a naïve universalism, such that a global adoption of this moral vision would end conflict and injustice, cosmopolitans should focus on how power matters. This chapter argues that cosmopolitanism—though by no means a monolithic international theory—must analyse and engage with the unifying and divisive nature of the political. By the same token, cosmopolitans should avoid seeing power as an inconvenient problem located outside of, and as a threat to, a set of spotless moral ideas. Instead, we show that power is the terrain on which the possibility of these ideals is contested and made possible. The chapter first outlines the history and core principles of cosmopolitan international political theory in relation to a taxonomy of four types of power. We then analyse how cosmopolitanism’s relationship to imperialism and republicanism offers two distinctive engagements with the political, each of which shows how power matters.