Dreams of Peace and Realities of War
International Conference
May 30-June 1, 2024
PRESENTATION TITLES AND ABSTRACTS
Globalization in the Face of the Tide of Hatred
Mauro Magatti – The Collapse of the Universal and Homogeneous State Facing Populism, Fundamentalism and Sovereignism
Post-1989 globalization may be viewed as a step towards the “homogeneous and universal state” (Kojeve) based on the global techno-economic system nurturing life chances and enlarging individual rights. And yet, the growth of life chances for billions of people around the world has produced huge entropic implications in terms of both the environmental and social life. Discontents coagulate around three main foci: One, popular and middle classes loosing ground; Two, traditionalist religious groups; Three declining economic interests and nationalistic political groups. The result is a schismogenesis (Bateson): resentment breeds hatred that grows by identifying internal (migrant) or external enemy (war). A highly uncertain historical era has begun.
When the Extreme Rivalry Dominates the Landscape
Asma Afsaruddin – Justice and Non-Combatant Immunity in Islamic Military Ethics
This paper discusses the importance of the concept of “justice” within the Islamic tradition as can be discerned from Muslim exegeses of Qur’an 5:8 and links it to a discussion of Islamic military ethics. Another Qur’anic verse 2:190 establishes the defensive nature of armed combat as part of just conduct during warfare; according to this verse, preemptive military activity even against a trenchant enemy is considered aggression. Targeting civilians – women, children, non-combatant men, among others – is also an act of aggression that Islamic sources unite in condemning and proscribing severely. Guaranteeing non-combatant immunity became a distinctive hallmark of Islamic military ethics. This is a concept enshrined in both Islamic international law and international humanitarian law that has become more important than ever to uphold in our contemporary world as tribal and national allegiances threaten to erode a shared sense of humanity and the ability to value all human lives equally.
José Casanova – The Pluralization of Cosmopolitanisms: Religious and Secular
Our global international system is broken. The war on Ukraine and the genocidal war in Gaza/Palestine/Israel make clear that the international system is impotent when the superpowers with veto power at the UN are the ones breaking the international legal order and either themselves committing or letting their clients commit war crimes with impunity.
It is imperative to reconstitute some form of international rule of law based on legal universalism. But any reconstituted legal universalism will only have widespread legitimacy if it is the outcome of mutual recognition, dialogue and negotiation not only among the members of the UN, but also among the competing moral and anthropological universalisms and cosmopolitanisms. The recognition of the really existing plurality of competing universalisms and cosmopolitanisms, religious and secular, has to serve as the foundation of any attempt to reconstitute some form of legal universalism based on universal rules and principles. Otherwise, we will enter indeed a multipolar world based on the competing particularisms of the realpolitik of aspiring superpowers.
The Ideals and Limits of International Institutions
Mustafa Akyol – Why the World Order is not Liberal Yet (online)
In recent years there has been much talk from Western policy makers about the need to preserve the “liberal world order.” However, their own double standards, which have become more glaring than ever with their stance on the catastrophic war in Gaza, suggest that such an order is more rhetorical than real. This does not mean that liberalism — as a political creed of universal human rights — is worthless. Within the nation-states in which it has triumphed, liberalism had great accomplishments. But the international scene is still largely defined by brute power and sheer interest, instead of objective norms and rules. It calls for an honest recognition of reality, so we can aspire for a truly free and just world.