Morton A. Kaplan, Past President of PWPA International and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, passed away September 27, 2017. He was 96.
Kaplan, a WWII veteran, became famous in the field of international relations with the publication of his 1957 book System and Process in International Politics. Committed to the creation of a peaceful and stable international order, Kaplan sought ways to develop good relations and trust in the international system of states. His views were often critical of political realists who only promoted strategic self-interest and the unbridled wielding of power.He was a wide-ranging scholar integrating concepts from philosophy, linguistics, systems theory, and physics. Kaplan’s most recent book Transcending Postmodernism, co-authored with Inanna Hamati-Ataya, was published in 2014
Kaplan was fervently devoted to Professors World Peace Academy and organized three groundbreaking international conferences related to world social systems. All these conferences were organized into about 12 committees with 90 expert scholars presenting papers. PWPA leaders from about 90 countries around the world participated and learned about different systems of governance and how they might advise their own countries. Several volumes of books were produced from each of these conferences. Continue reading →