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The Role of Diasporas in World Peace

Intro­duc­tion to Sep­tem­ber 2008 IJWP

Glob­al­iza­tion of the world’s econ­omy and the migra­tions of peo­ple for polit­i­cal and eco­nomic rea­sons has caused a col­li­sion of cul­tures within nearly every coun­try. While vast empires have his­tor­i­cally been more plu­ral­is­tic as they con­tain migra­tions of cul­tural groups from one part of an empire to another, twenty-first cen­tury migra­tions are impact­ing even the most homo­ge­neous states.

Ger­man philoso­pher Karl Jaspers pio­neered the idea of an “Axial Age” that occurred between 800 to 200 b.c.e., when the foun­da­tions that under­lie cur­rent major civ­i­liza­tional spheres came into being:
Con­tinue read­ing The Role of Dias­po­ras in World Peace

A Post-Colonial and Post-Soviet World

Intro­duc­tion to IJWP, June 2008
This issue begins by dis­cussing the elim­i­na­tion of the effects of colo­nial­ism and the Soviet Union which were each, in their own way, the result of empire-building. The idea of rul­ing over the lands of other peo­ple has been around as long as recorded human his­tory. While it runs counter to the notion that peo­ple have the right to pur­sue their own des­tiny, it is an idea that dies hard and con­tin­u­ally resur­faces when checks and bal­ances in power are not put in place that would deter the force of conquest.

Suc­ces­sion in For­eign Pol­icy in the Post-Soviet World
Our first arti­cle, by Alexan­der Nikitin on “Russ­ian For­eign Pol­icy in the Frag­mented Post-Soviet Space” looks at the suc­ces­sion or tran­si­tion of for­eign pol­icy in the geo­graphic area vacated by the death, not of a sin­gle polit­i­cal leader, but of an entire polit­i­cal régime. Con­tinue read­ing A Post-Colonial and Post-Soviet World

Congress Shall Make no Law Respecting an Establishment of Commerce

Mod­ern soci­ety con­sists of three major com­po­nents: cul­ture, gov­ern­ment, and the econ­omy. The founders of the United States spec­i­fied the rela­tion­ship between cul­ture and gov­ern­ment in the first amend­ment, which for­bids the estab­lish­ment of reli­gion, but they did not make a sim­i­lar dec­la­ra­tion with respect to the rela­tion­ship between gov­ern­ment and the econ­omy. In their day, the econ­omy did not exist in sep­a­rate con­cen­tra­tions of power since it was mostly based on family-run busi­nesses and farms.

How­ever, human free­dom requires free­dom in the eco­nomic sphere as well as the reli­gious and polit­i­cal spheres. Fol­low­ing indus­tri­al­iza­tion in the nine­teenth cen­tury, cor­po­ra­tions were given more power by the courts, amassed greater cap­i­tal, and even­tu­ally used that power to dis­place the polit­i­cal and eco­nomic power of ordi­nary cit­i­zens. A social­ist back­lash attempted to use the force of gov­ern­ment to plan indus­trial out­put. In Europe, these two trends led to dif­fer­ent forms of total­i­tar­i­an­ism. On the right we had National Social­ism and Fas­cism and on the left we had Communism.

Today the lack of clear rela­tion­ship between polit­i­cal and eco­nomic power is one of the most seri­ous prob­lems fac­ing the United States. Eco­nomic plan­ning by the gov­ern­ment and busi­nesses procur­ing gov­ern­ment favors lead to the estab­lish­ment of com­merce and the pre­ven­tion of free exer­cise in the mar­ket. Mas­sive gov­ern­ment inef­fi­ciency, loss of eco­nomic com­pet­i­tive­ness, over­priced oil and health­care, and loss of per­sonal free­dom are all unwanted results. An amend­ment to the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion relat­ing to the econ­omy that is sim­i­lar to the estab­lish­ment clause related to reli­gion could be a first step in solv­ing this prob­lem.
Con­tinue read­ing Con­gress Shall Make no Law Respect­ing an Estab­lish­ment of Commerce

What Constitutes acceptable use of Force?

Intro­duc­tion to IJWP, March 2008

“What Con­sti­tutes the Legit­i­mate Use of Force?” is a thorny and much debated ques­tion in mod­ern polit­i­cal the­ory and just war doc­trine. Under what con­di­tions is the use of force moral? When is it immoral? How much force is enough? What is exces­sive use of force? Do some types of gov­ern­ments, by virtue of their struc­ture, have a greater right to use force than oth­ers? How much force against indi­vid­u­als should be allowed to secure some greater good?  The arti­cles in this issue each address this issue of the legit­i­mate use of force, directly or indi­rectly, from a vari­ety of per­spec­tives.
Con­tinue read­ing What Con­sti­tutes accept­able use of Force?

Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. dies at 82

(Video: Mr. Buck­ley debat­ing U.S. for­eign pol­icy with Noam Chom­sky on Fir­ing Line in 1969.)

William F. Buck­ley Jr., a major force in shap­ing mod­ern Amer­i­can con­ser­vatism and a critic of aca­d­e­mic cul­ture, at his home, at the age of 82.
Con­tinue read­ing Wm. F. Buck­ley, Jr. dies at 82

A Post-Westphalian world and the quest for Self-Determination

IJWP 4-07 CoverIntro­duc­tion to IJWP, Decem­ber 2007 Issue

Many of the key issues of our tur­bu­lent age are pre­sented in this issue of IJWP. It con­tains hints of the out­line of how a post-Westphalian, post-bipolar world is shap­ing up. We have not come close to cre­at­ing a world of peace, but we are learn­ing a few things that I hope we can col­lec­tively remem­ber to come closer to the end of a his­tory of abuse of power.
Con­tinue read­ing A Post-Westphalian world and the quest for Self-Determination