Political Theory Archives

AnalysesPolitical Theory

Jürgen Habermas’ theory of civic discourse imposes binding rules on debate in order to subsequently bind behavior. Perhaps this could be extended to international affairs. Scholar Wang Minmin advocates establishing “a set of negotiable yet binding communicative rules and values, [and] world opinion [that] would both allow civic discourse and act as the binding power of an international norm.” Such an approach would require “that we must first acknowledge the differences in moral orders on both sides, but then also move beyond this to realize the common ground on which both sides stand.”

PublicationsPolitical Theory

Special Issue: Venice Seminars 2020; Communities and the Individual: Beyond the Liberal-Communitarian Divide This volume gathers the articles presented at the 2020 ResetDOC Venice Seminars, which were held online from May 25 to May 29, 2020. The 2020 Venice Seminars addressed the topic of “Communities and the Individual: Beyond the Liberal-Communitarian Divide” Editors: Alessandro Ferrara, Volker Kaul and David Rasmussen Download the pdf version here.

Our Initiatives Political Theory

The current political situation in Post-Soviet countries, primarily the Russian Federation, raises questions about the cultural roots of today’s prevailing nationalist political ideologies and behaviours. The international scientific community has to overcome the lack of knowledge about Russia’s Post-Soviet history, also in order to avoid the sheer repetition of old clichés – liberal -western opinions versus a despotic-eastern world

Videos Political Theory

Lebanon’s unique power-sharing system used to be celebrated as a model of effective democracy in a highly diverse context. That is no longer the case. Prof. Mona Harb (AUB) explains why in the second part of this video-interview shot on the margins of Reset DOC’s 2022 Venice Seminars, “Between State and Civil Society: Who Protects Individual Liberties and Human Dignity?”

ConveningPolitical Theory

May

2024

Boston College

Through its lectures, workshops, the Seminars and Conference aim to analyze the fundamental aspiration of peace in different traditions: the Chinese and Confucian desire of the world harmony and the Middle Empire; the Islamic perspective, the concepts of peace and tolerance in the founding texts; the Buddhist and Hindu perspective; and the Christian one, from crusades to pacifism.

May

2023

Boston College

Through its lectures, workshops, the Seminars and Conference will seek a structural, in-depth understanding of the way wars and the collapse of empires between the 19th and 20th centuries have allowed for the formation and strengthening of national identities and narratives, as well as the self-recognition of nations emerging from such processes in the global arena. It will focus primarily on dynamics that have emerged from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires and how these have led to the reappearance of nationalism on the international stage

May

2022

Venice (Italy)

ResetDOC in collaboration with the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice is organizing the 2022 Venice Seminars and Summer School. This year’s theme will address the issues relating to the need to protect the most vulnerable in society against the ravages of Covid-19, climate change and recent financial crises and rising inflation. This precarious context signals the powerful return of the state. After decades of globalization and the ascendancy of markets, multinationals and civil society, national governments have reemerged as critical actors. The state is seen as the last recourse against extreme income inequality and against challenges to individual freedoms emanating from cultural-religious realms.