Cosmopolitanism in a gridlocked world

Non-ideal cosmopolitanism will advise a rebalancing of the kind of priorities that political theorists take to be relevant in their work. This is probably the most powerful lesson that political theorists should draw from Gridlock. There is no accurate, plausible or useful political theory that ignores structural facts about the world we live in, and which does not strive to identify the relevant stakeholders and feasible institutional paths for the kind of morally motivated changes that it suggests. This does not mean that all searching for a glimpse of perfect cosmopolitan justice (or similar lofty ideals) should stop: but it does mean that such search should not be the main, let alone the only concern that a cosmopolitan political theory should have. Even if imagining perfect justice is part of the cosmopolitan philosophical mission, it may not necessarily be the most urgent or even the most important.