by CGS | Nov 3, 2024 | Past Event
Watch the first of two sessions in CGS’s World Citizen Book Club to discuss Dr. Winston Langley’s book, Abolishing War. Is it possible to abolish war? This is the fundamental question animating Winston Langley’s new book. And, though many will disagree, it is a question to which the author is persuaded the answer is yes. Far from being utopian ideals, Langley argues, international security and peace are attainable, as are their necessary corollaries: protection of the environment, conservation of natural resources, and fair enforcement of all human rights. To that end, he proposes a radically altered United Nations—one that will afford the effective system of global governance that we all desire.
Winston Langley is Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science and International Relations, and Senior Fellow, McCormack Graduate School for Policy and Global Studies, at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has taught for over 40 years and served as Provost of the university from 2008 to 2017. The principal focus of his research and writing has been in the area of international relations dealing with models of global order, with strong emphasis on human rights and criticism of the present a-moral system, which is based on sovereign nation-states. He sees this system as the primary source of international violence, including war, and the unending cause of human rights abuse. Women and children have been an area of his human rights research and writing, his book (with Vivian Fox), on Women’s Rights in the United States, won Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award on human rights in North America. He has always had a deep interest in the role of images in human behavior, and for years taught a course on images of world politics through film and literature. His two latest books are War Between U.S. and China and While the US Sleeps.
by CGS | Oct 12, 2024 | Past Event
Watch the second session where we explore pages 173-311 with the author, Dr. Samuel Zipp.
In August 1942, as the threat of fascism swept the world, a charismatic former Republican presidential contender, Wendell Willkie, took an unprecedented airplane journey around the world to visit battlefronts in Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and China. In One World, the runaway bestseller he published on his return, Willkie challenged Americans to resist the “America first” doctrine and warned of the dangers of “narrow nationalism”. He urged citizens to end colonialism and embrace, “equality of opportunity for every race and every nation”. Zipp argues that Willkie’s “warnings about the perils of racially charged ‘narrow nationalism’ have never been more indispensable. As the United States reaches the end of its long turn as a great global power, the quandaries of American exceptionalism he faced remain ours today, and his example may yet offer us undiscovered resources for living in a ‘one world’ he heralded more than three-quarters of a century ago.”
“The term Willkie helped to put into common circulation -’one world’ –would become shorthand for the disruptive charge of worldly connection set off by the war. Over the years Willkie’s name would fade away but ‘one world’ would be adopted by world government advocates, anti-imperialists, environmentalists, and even corporate marketers to signify the promise of times in which global shrinkage offered new contracts and new ideas to offset the dangers of war, xenophobia and racism.”
Samuel Zipp is a cultural and urban historian at Brown University. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, n+1, The Baffler, and The Nation and is the author of Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal Cold War New York. He also coedited a collection of the writings of Jane Jacobs.
by CGS | Sep 23, 2024 | Past Event
Watch the first of two sessions where we explore pages 1 – 172 (Chapters 1 – 9) with the author, Dr. Samuel Zipp.
In August 1942, as the threat of fascism swept the world, a charismatic former Republican presidential contender, Wendell Willkie, took an unprecedented airplane journey around the world to visit battlefronts in Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and China. In One World, the runaway bestseller he published on his return, Willkie challenged Americans to resist the “America first” doctrine and warned of the dangers of “narrow nationalism”. He urged citizens to end colonialism and embrace, “equality of opportunity for every race and every nation”. Zipp argues that Willkie’s “warnings about the perils of racially charged ‘narrow nationalism’ have never been more indispensable. As the United States reaches the end of its long turn as a great global power, the quandaries of American exceptionalism he faced remain ours today, and his example may yet offer us undiscovered resources for living in a ‘one world’ he heralded more than three-quarters of a century ago.”
“The term Willkie helped to put into common circulation -’one world’ –would become shorthand for the disruptive charge of worldly connection set off by the war. Over the years Willkie’s name would fade away but ‘one world’ would be adopted by world government advocates, anti-imperialists, environmentalists, and even corporate marketers to signify the promise of times in which global shrinkage offered new contracts and new ideas to offset the dangers of war, xenophobia and racism.”
Samuel Zipp is a cultural and urban historian at Brown University. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, n+1, The Baffler, and The Nation and is the author of Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal Cold War New York. He also coedited a collection of the writings of Jane Jacobs.
by CGS | Sep 20, 2024 | Past Event
A Side Event in conjunction with the UN Summit of the Future by the ImPACT Coalition for Just Institutions and the International Court of Justice, convened by Citizens for Global Solutions. International law is the foundation on which a renewed effective multilateral system should function. International courts and tribunals have never been busier. And yet, we all are profoundly aware that atrocities continue in nearly every region. The international adjudication system is a continuous evolutionary process. Genuine commitment to this process is critical to realize the aspirations of the UN system: foremost the peaceful and just resolution of conflicts and end to impunity for atrocities. This side event will begin with a recognition of the successes of international judicial institutions as indispensable elements of the global peace and security architecture. We welcome the commitment to comply with the decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the inclusion of atrocity crimes, including the Crime of Aggression, as critical priorities included in the Pact for the Future. At the same time, this enterprise must entail a critical analysis of the shortcomings of the global judicial architecture and the need for continuous support to realize the ambitions of the UN Charter and the promise of “never again.”
An esteemed panel will consider the innovations and advancements of the International Criminal Court, the ICJ, and other courts and tribunals. An interactive dialogue will explore what should come next to achieve the full universality and effectiveness of these institutions, and to confront threats to their independence and integrity as indispensable elements of the global peace and justice architecture beyond the Summit of the Future.
Speakers
Jim Goldston, Executive Director, Open Society Justice Initiative
Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Director of the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights.
Matias Hellman, Acting Head of Outreach, International Criminal Court (ICC)
Akila Radhakrishnan, Senior Advisor, Atlantic Council, former Executive Director, Global Justice Center
Jennifer Trahan, Clinical Professor, NYU Center for Global Affairs, and Director of their concentration in Human Rights and International Law; Convenor of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression
Rebecca A. Shoot, Executive Director, Citizens for Global Solutions
by CGS | Aug 21, 2024 | Past Event
Hay un reconocimiento amplio que el mundo enfrenta un momento de crisis medioambiental profunda. Aun así, la naturaleza existencial de esta amenaza puede dar una impresión falsa de que actores responsables no puedan ser identificados o que estén más allá del alcance de la justicia global. Recientemente, hemos visto desarrollos prometedores en el intento para lograr la responsabilidad por daños atroces a la humanidad y al planeta. Este evento se llevará a cabo en español solamente.
by CGS | Aug 21, 2024 | Past Event
The ImPACT Coalition on Just Institutions and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hosted two webinars in cooperation with the ImPACT Coalition on Earth Governance exploring judicial pathways toward environmental justice. The ImPACT Coalitions were established as part of a civil society-led complement to the UN Summit of the Future process and tackle a diverse array of global governance issues.
To date, the ImPACT Coalition on Just Institutions and the ICJ has convened three webinars to raise greater awareness of the roles, successes, and interaction among international judicial institutions, and to support advocacy toward their greater universality and effectiveness.
This webinar addresses environmental justice issues. There is widespread recognition that the world faces a moment of profound environmental crisis. And yet, the existential nature of this threat may give a false impression that actors responsible cannot be identified or are beyond the arm of global justice. Recent years have seen hopeful developments in the attempt to achieve accountability for heinous harms to humanity and the planet.
These include: The advancement of both requests for Advisory Opinions and contentious cases on State responsibility for environmental degradation, including climate change, before the ICJ and International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS); Support for a new Crime of Ecocide to be included by amendment within the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including a robust report by an independent expert panel, as well as the promulgation of a policy by the current Prosecutor to actively investigate and prosecute environmental crimes within the Court’s current jurisdiction; Seminal precedential rulings at the regional level, including the Inter-American Court and European Court systems; The historic completion of reparations payments after more than three decades, including for environmental damage, for the illegal invasion by Iraq of Kuwait in 1990; and Introduction of proposals for new judicial institutions with distinct subject matter jurisdiction capable of addressing the multifaceted and intersectional challenges of environmental crimes, including an International Environmental Court and International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC).
At the same time, experiments like a widely critiqued ICJ Environmental Chamber, active from 1993-1996, provide cautionary tales. This webinar, organized by Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS), with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP), probes potential pathways to environmental justice in international and regional courts and tribunals.
