Author Archives: Emma Stone Mackinnon

About Emma Stone Mackinnon

Emma Stone Mackinnon is a junior research fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge; as of January 2020 she will join the Cambridge history faculty as a Lecturer in the History of Political Thought. Her work on political theory and the history of human rights has been published or is forthcoming in Humanity, Political Theory, and several edited volumes.

On the Language of Just War: A Reply to Whyte

August 21, 2019 by
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This post is part of a symposium on Jessica Whyte’s essay “The ‘Dangerous Concept of the Just War.’” All contributions to the symposium can be found here. In her essay, Jessica Whyte persuasively refutes what she takes to be a hegemonic narrative of the development, and triumph, of ideas of just war. Reading together Walzer, O’Brien, and the 2015 United States Law of War Manual, she shows what a revisionist story they collectively offer, in part because of their reliance on a narrative in which Continue reading →

Promise-Making and the History of Human Rights: Reading Arendt with Danto

September 11, 2018 by
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Dear Mr. President: This is to draw attention to the cases of a group of colleagues of ours, historians well known in the academic community, all of whom are now in prison . . . Every scholar has a vested interest in this matter. Faithfully, Hannah Arendt (Letter to Augusto Pinochet, November 27, 1974, writing at the urging of an Amnesty International chapter in Brussels)1 Dear Dr. Kissinger: We noted with pleasure the implication in your conversation with Mr. Moyers that you are actively intervening Continue reading → Continue reading →