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BY MATT GETTY

When most people discuss building a better world, they talk about human rights. As freedom and respect for individual autonomy take root throughout the globe, the thinking goes, international peace will flower. According to Amitai Etzioni, the acclaimed guru of the communitarian movement, this theory is at least half wrong. “If you come to the world and talk only of human rights,” declared Etzioni, on campus last Thursday to outline a communitarian approach to globalism during an SIS visiting scholar lecture, “you’re missing half the story.” The other half, he said, is the less discussed counterpart to human rights—human responsibility.

As director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, the founder of the Communitarian Network, and the author of more than a dozen books on communitarianism, Etzioni argues that the ideal nation strikes a perfect balance between individual autonomy and communal responsibility. In discussing his most recent book, From Empire to Community: A New Approach to International Relations, he extended this formula from the single nation-state to the world, outlining an approach to international relations that goes beyond liberation. “We want to come in and say, ‘We have the answer. We’re going to bring the world the big three—human rights, democracy, and a free market economy,’” he explained. “But you have to offer something more. You need to create a new foundation for social order as well.” Citing postliberation chaos in Russia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, Etzioni argued that removing an oppressive regime without building any system of social responsibility to replace it can have devastating results. The challenge, he stressed, is to determine some common international standards of social responsibility.

While the prospect of the world agreeing on shared standards for governance seems highly unlikely to most, Etzioni pointed out that it is already, at least in part, a reality. In the wake of Sept. 11, he argued, the war on terror—whether you support it or not—has created a type of world order once thought impossible. “When I was a student, I was told that any talk about global government was an idealistic dream, but now it exists,” he explained, pointing to the fact that more than 50 countries have altered their laws to become “better players” in the global war on terror.

Noting that this international police action is flawed at best, Etzioni stressed that it is, nonetheless, here to stay. “Many of us may want to put the genie back in the bottle, run the tape backwards back to 9-11,” he said, “but this is kindergarten stuff. It’s just not going to happen.”

What needs to happen instead, he explained, is for this new global governance to move toward a fairer, more accountable, and multilateral system. “It behooves us to be a little more humble and say, ‘We bring something to the table, you bring something to the table,’” Etzioni explained. Idealistic as this plan may seem, he concluded by stressing that his communitarian approach to international relations stands on the firm ground of practicality. “This is more realistic than realism,” he said, pointing to the high costs of the United States’ less inclusive initial rule in Iraq. “There the lack of idealism has had some very real consequences.”