The intense debate over the war in Iraq and American foreign policy has raised age-old questions about the rights and wrongs of intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign states, the pre-emptive use of force and the 'export' of democracy, but there has been little attempt to acknowledge and confront the special difficulties of discussing moral issues in the peculiar conditions and circumstances of international politics. Owen Harries explores the intellectual heritage of two opposing positions on morality and foreign policy.