Big Picture Ethics?

This chapter considers Buzan’s approach to ethics and normative theory and theorising in his big picture approach. It critiques his argument that normative theorising remains an essential component of thinking about the big picture but is the work of specialists. This chapter suggests this is problematic for two reasons and that normative theory is an essential counterpoint to Buzan’s empirical focus rather than being a separate, specialist, activity. First, I set out that normativity is embedded in methodological choices about what to look for and how to look for it in the big picture. A contrapuntal approach reveals unacknowledged normative choices substantively shaping analyses of how international society forms and functions, and its fragility. Second, the chapter argues that an empirical big picture must make room for the normativity inherent in politics. Visions of a ‘better’ world may be almost limitless in their diversity, but this is the core language of advocating change and a key motivational factor in bringing people to enact change. Normative theoretical counterpoint to Buzan’s big picture approach reveals much about the political processes that make global society and why we unavoidably analyse it in normatively significant ways.