By analyzing the history of the Cold War and its aftermath, this course will explore and debate critical, ethical, and political questions of our times -such as human rights, war and peace, and the founding values of the "global community." Was the Cold War a result of conflicting systems of values? How did moral visions contribute to the end of the Cold War? Were human rights construed as a universal discourse or a Western model in the globalizing world order? How have the dilemmas of war and peace been redefined in political and ethical terms? Did "humanitarian interventions" establish a double moral standard? Can the formulation of "just war" be applied to post-Cold War conflicts? The end of the Cold War and the collapse of Soviet communism in Europe and Russia will be seen as a crucial conjuncture disclosing most of the main fractures and ambiguities of our times. Specific attention will be devoted to the Western and European project to shape a world order, imagined as an extension of democratic and moral principles, and to the emergence of competing visions and resistance to such a project. The main purpose of this course is to develop reflections on the efforts and failures to overcome Manichaean visions inherited from the Cold War and build an inclusive post-Cold War world order, based on a durable framework and on shared ethical values.
3 units · Letter (ABCD/NP)
By analyzing the history of the Cold War and its aftermath, this course will explore and debate critical, ethical, and political questions of our times -such as human rights, war and peace, and the founding values of the "global community." Was the Cold War a result of conflicting systems of values? How did moral visions contribute to the end of the Cold War? Were human rights construed as a universal discourse or a Western model in the globalizing world order? How have the dilemmas of war and peace been redefined in political and ethical terms? Did "humanitarian interventions" establish a double moral standard? Can the formulation of "just war" be applied to post-Cold War conflicts? The end of the Cold War and the collapse of Soviet communism in Europe and Russia will be seen as a crucial conjuncture disclosing most of the main fractures and ambiguities of our times. Specific attention will be devoted to the Western and European project to shape a world order, imagined as an extension of democratic and moral principles, and to the emergence of competing visions and resistance to such a project. The main purpose of this course is to develop reflections on the efforts and failures to overcome Manichaean visions inherited from the Cold War and build an inclusive post-Cold War world order, based on a durable framework and on shared ethical values.