All Outputs (11)

Realism, reckless states, and natural selection (2022)
Journal Article

Why is daredevil aggression like Russia’s war on Ukraine such an important factor in world politics? Neither offensive nor defensive realists give a fully satisfactory answer. This paper maintains that the problem lies in their shared assumption that... Read More about Realism, reckless states, and natural selection.

Nuclear war as a predictable surprise (2022)
Journal Article

Like asteroids, hundred-year floods and pandemic disease, thermonuclear war is a low-frequency, high-impact threat. In the long run, catastrophe is inevitable if nothing is done − yet each successive government and generation may fail to address it.... Read More about Nuclear war as a predictable surprise.

Public debt and intergenerational ethics: how to fund a clean technology 'Apollo program'? (2021)
Journal Article

If the present generation refuses to bear the burden of mitigating global heating, could we motivate sufficient action by shifting that burden to our descendants? Several writers have proposed breaking the political impasse by funding mitigation thro... Read More about Public debt and intergenerational ethics: how to fund a clean technology 'Apollo program'?.

Discounting, Climate Change, and the Ecological Fallacy (2019)
Journal Article

Discounting future costs and benefits is often defended on the ground that our descendants will be richer. Simply to treat the future as better off, however, is to commit an ecological fallacy. Even if our descendants are better off when we average... Read More about Discounting, Climate Change, and the Ecological Fallacy.

Carbon leakage and the argument from no difference (2015)
Journal Article

Critics of carbon mitigation often appeal to what Jonathan Glover has called ‘the argument from no difference’: that is, ‘if I don’t do it, someone else will’. Yet even if this justifies continued high emissions by the industrialised countries, it ca... Read More about Carbon leakage and the argument from no difference.

Mere addition and the separateness of persons (2015)
Journal Article

How can we resist the repugnant conclusion? James Griffin has suggested that part way through the sequence we may reach a world—let us call it “J”— in which the lives are lexically superior to those that follow. If it would be better to live a single... Read More about Mere addition and the separateness of persons.

Climate change and the threat of disaster: the moral case for taking out insurance at our grandchildren's expense (2011)
Journal Article

Is drastic action against global warming essential to avoid impoverishing our descendants? Or does it mean robbing the poor to give to the rich? Alas, we don’t yet know. Yet most of us can agree on the importance of minimizing expected deprivation. B... Read More about Climate change and the threat of disaster: the moral case for taking out insurance at our grandchildren's expense.

Non-identity, sufficiency and exploitation (2011)
Journal Article

In this article I advance a solution to the non-identity problem based on distributive justice. Drawing on a seminal article by Gregory Kavka, I argue that in our everyday decisions about creating people, we widely recognize three principles. First,... Read More about Non-identity, sufficiency and exploitation.

Nuclear weapons and intergenerational exploitation (2007)
Journal Article

Nuclear weapons’ defenders claim that they lower the risk of war, at the price of devastation if war breaks out. But sooner or later, on a realist analysis, catastrophic nuclear war is almost sure to come. Nuclear deterrence thus buys us a better cha... Read More about Nuclear weapons and intergenerational exploitation.

Defensive realism and the Concert of Europe (2006)
Journal Article

Why do great powers expand? Offensive realist John Mearsheimer claims that states wage an eternal struggle for power, and that those strong enough to seek regional hegemony nearly always do. Mearsheimer's evidence, however, displays a selection bias.... Read More about Defensive realism and the Concert of Europe.

The Sparta and the Athens Of Our Age At Daggers Drawn: Polities, Perceptions, and Peace (2004)
Journal Article

While historically notions of democracy have varied widely, democratic peace theory has generally defined it in procedural terms. This article takes a close look at the Anglo-French confrontation of 1840. I show that while leaders on both sides were... Read More about The Sparta and the Athens Of Our Age At Daggers Drawn: Polities, Perceptions, and Peace.