In this revised edition of his 1979 classic Political Theory and International Relations , Charles Beitz rejects two highly influential conceptions of international theory as empirically inaccurate and theoretically misleading. In one, international relations is a Hobbesian state of nature in which moral judgments are entirely inappropriate, and in the other, states are analogous to persons in domestic society in having rights of autonomy that insulate them from external moral assessment and political interference. Beitz postulates that a theory of international politics should include a revised principle of state autonomy based on the justice of a state's domestic institutions, and a principle of international distributive justice to establish a fair division of resources and wealth among persons situated in diverse national societies.

在他1979年的经典著作《政治理论与国际关系》的这一修订版中，查尔斯-贝茨拒绝了两种极具影响力的国际理论概念，认为它们在经验上不准确，在理论上有误导性。在其中一个概念中，国际关系是霍布斯式的自然状态，在这种状态下，道德判断是完全不合适的；而在另一个概念中，国家类似于国内社会中的人，拥有自主权，使其免受外部道德评估和政治干预。贝茨认为，国际政治理论应该包括一个基于国家国内机构公正性的国家自治修订原则，以及一个国际分配公正原则，以便在不同国家社会中的人之间建立一个公平的资源和财富分配。