The End of Pacification? The Transformation of Political Violence in the 21st Century

Ringvorlesung des Exzellenzclusters "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen"

Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Campus Westend, Hörsaalzentrum, HZ9

The history of the modern world has been told as a process of decreasing recourse to rampant violence: As a process of civilization that taught societies to tame human affects; as a process of legalization that led states and societies to regulate conflicts peacefully; and as a process of rising interdependence that made international conflict increasingly unprofitable. Even instances of massive collective violence, including world wars and the Holocaust, have been interpreted as deviant data points within an impressive macro-historical trend of pacification. This progressive narrative has been reinforced by the institutionalization of liberal norms and values, the global expansion of democracy and the peaceful termination of the Cold War.
While this diagnosis resonates with the Enlightenment ideas of modernization and rationalization, it runs the risk to oversee counter-evidence and underestimate developments that point to the opposite direction. New technologies allow for new kinds of weapons and the militarization of outer space and the internet. Non-state actors increasingly engage in mass-terrorism and new kinds of civil war. States adapt to these developments combining conventional and unconventional strategies in hybrid-warfare. What is more, the laws of war are increasingly violated and established institutions of regulating conflict are being questioned. Even the validity of formally agreed principles such as the illegality of violent conquest or the prohibition of chemical weapons are under pressure.
Do we witness the end of pacification? Is political violence transforming itself to the effect that it once again dominates political agendas? Or do we simply see the systemic contradictions inherent in the process of pacification which had all along consisted in the transformation and externalization rather than the overall reduction or even elimination of violence? Leading scholars from various  disciplines aim to find answers to these questions in this lecture series.

Organized by: Prof. Dr. Christopher Daase (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Exzellenzcluster "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen", Leibniz Institut Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung), Prof. Dr. Nicole Deitelhoff (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Exzellenzcluster "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen", Leibniz Institut Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung) and Dr. Julian Junk (Leibniz Institut Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung)

 Programm (pdf): Hier...

Programm:

Donnerstag, 11. Oktober 2018, 18.15 Uhr
Has War Declined Through Human History?
Prof. Michael Mann (University of California, Los Angeles)

Mittwoch, 12. Dezember 2018, 18.15 Uhr
Sexual Violence during War
Prof. Elizabeth J. Wood (Yale University)

Mittwoch, 23. Januar 2019, 18.15 Uhr
Sanktionskriege: Probleme dezentraler militärischer Normdurchsetzung
Prof. Dr. Christopher Daase (Professor für Internationale Organisationen der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Principal Investigator des Exzellenzclusters "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen")

Mittwoch, 30. Januar 2019, 18.15 Uhr
Disturbing the Peace: How the United States Influences Trends in Global Political Violence
Prof. Matthew A. Evangelista (Cornell University)

Mittwoch, 6. Februar 2019, 18.15 Uhr
Global Change and Civil Wars
Prof. Stathis N. Kalyvas (University of Oxford)

Mittwoch, 13. Februar 2019, 18.15 Uhr
Pockets of Barbarism: Internal and External Challenges to the International Humanitarian Order
Prof. Jennifer Welsh (European University Institute)

Veranstalter:
Exzellenzcluster "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen"

Vorausgegangene Ringvorlesungen: Hier...