Poverty matters as a subject for reflection in IR on many levels, one of which
is a prominent set of ideas around global justice that considers what states
owe each other in the process of international cooperation. After all, it can be
said that those with the power and ability to assist have a moral and ethical
obligation to try and solve problems like poverty. This stems from what Peter
Singer (1972) calls the ‘rescue case’, noting there is an obligation for
someone to assist an infant drowning in a shallow pond if the child can be
saved with minimal effort or inconvenience. In the context of global poverty,
the logic flows that developed states have an obligation to help poor states
because they can, with minimal effort.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license.