Communitarianism exists as both an empirical and normative social theory that emphasises the primacy of the nation or community’s owed moral obligations to each-other over that of the International. Buzan and Little suggest that the ethics of a globalised world demands shared obligations, as the increased intensity of interactions has made states more interdependent. For instance, the West’s reaction to the Ukrainian War runs contrary to the community-orientated moral concerns of the communitarian because they are inherently universalist, and thus “are right.”

The communitarian rather argues that morality is a derivative of the values of communities or states. In such a domain, continental reasoning seeks to identify the moral rules independent from the cosmopolitan’s anti-utilitarian values. Indeed, a utilitarian approach to ethics offers a more neutral and thereby, pragmatic response to the owed obligations of the cosmopolitan. Instead, efforts are judged by their expected outcomes when human welfare (the “greatest good”) is upheld for the benefit of their fiefdom is warranted. Thus, owing a moral obligation to assist a homeless man find accommodation will be judged conducive to producing a greater economic benefit for society, as opposed to feeding a starving foreigner. 

Thomas Pogge concedes that communities and social identities are therefore responsible for fostering such a moral obligation. If the International actively disadvantages certain sectors of the global population such as the injustice of the “economic scheme” imposed on the Global South by the West and China. Ultimately, Pogge’s solution implies that the wealthiest states that are ought to owe an “ethical duty” to such an inhumane morality because, after all, it is the common people who suffer from poverty.