Professors World Peace Academy

Intro­duc­tion to March 2009 IJWP

This issue con­tains a vari­ety of arti­cles that do not eas­ily coa­lesce around a par­tic­u­lar theme, but all refer to con­tain­ing the vio­lence wreaked by those with power in the pur­suit of self-interested goals, whether they be polit­i­cal, eco­nomic, or reli­gious. This vio­lence might appear in the form of a ruth­less war­lord rap­ing the econ­omy and nat­ural resources, the kid­nap­ping and mur­der of NGO work­ers try­ing to serve the rav­aged and oppressed in such coun­tries, or the uni­lat­eral actions of a state to impose its will on oth­ers or threaten them with weapons of mass destruction.

Our first arti­cle, by George Kieh, exam­ines the roots of civil war in Liberia. He notes that the peace imposed after the first civil war laid the seeds of a sec­ond civil war. Too often peace set­tle­ments aimed at end­ing fight­ing do not con­tain a process for the res­o­lu­tion of under­ly­ing social prob­lems. Thus, they become a tem­po­rary ces­sa­tion of vio­lence rather than a real peace. In Liberia there was scarcely two years between the end of the first civil war and the onset of a sec­ond. The lack of  an ade­quate national secu­rity régime led to the com­pe­ti­tion for state power among war­lords. Con­tinue read­ing Secu­rity for the Innocent

Intro­duc­tion to Decem­ber 2008 IJWP

The arti­cles in this issue all relate to the Mid­dle East region from Pales­tine to Pak­istan. This region is per­haps the most resis­tant to reli­gious plu­ral­ism in the world. War and vio­lence are often the result of the attempt by a reli­gious or eth­nic group to lay claim on an entire state. A group may want to use the power of the state to redis­trib­ute all of the wealth and resources to its own mem­bers, or it may fear mis­treat­ment or geno­cide if another group con­trols the power of the state.

When a reli­gious group, an eth­nic group, or a state claims to have the true under­stand­ing of peace and jus­tice, or some monop­oly on knowl­edge, they run into direct con­flict with oth­ers who make sim­i­lar claims based on dif­fer­ent sacred truths. Con­tinue read­ing Liv­ing Peace­fully with One Another in the Mid­dle East

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

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

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?