2015/2016

2016/2017

DM270

SPS/01 (FILOSOFIA POLITICA)

DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE POLITICHE E SOCIALI

WORLD POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (POLITICA NEL MONDO E RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI)

PERCORSO COMUNE

2°

Primo Semestre (03/10/2016 - 17/12/2016)

6

40 ore di attività frontale

ENGLISH

SCRITTO

CEVA EMANUELA MARIA (titolare) - 6 CFU

NONE

Preparatory readings:

Students who are unfamiliar with contemporary debates in political philosophy should read in preparation for the course:
Will Kymlicka, Contemporary Political Philosophy. An Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 (the book is available on restricted loan (consultazione) from the departmental library).

More specific preparatory reading concerning normative approaches to dealing with conflicts can include some or all of the following:
Adams, Robert M. ‘Conflict.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 83, 1(2009): 115–32;
Ceva, Emanuela, ‘Just Interactions in Value Conflicts: The Adversary Argumentation Principle.’ Politics, Philosophy & Economics 11, 2 (2012): 149–70;
Gutmann, Amy, and Dennis Thompson. ‘Moral Conflict and Political Consensus.’ Ethics 101, 1(1990): 64–88;
Luban, David. ‘Bargaining and Compromise: Recent Work on Negotiation and Informal Justice.’ Philosophy & Public Affairs 14, 4 (1985): 397–416;
Rehg, William. ‘Intractable Conflicts and Moral Objectivity: A Dialogical, Problem-Based Approach.’ Inquiry 42, 2 (1999): 229–57.

This course aims at introducing the students to contemporary philosophical debates on issues of global justice with special reference to problems concerning the resolution of international conflicts. The main objectives of the course are as follows:
- to familiarise students with such fundamental political concepts as justice, legitimacy, fairness, and equality from a philosophical perspective;
- to teach students to carry out a normative analysis of political problems and institutions at the global level;
- to develop students' critical and argumentative skills as well as their capacity for autonomous thought.
The expected results of this course are as follows:
- to enable students to carry out conceptual analyses of political ideals;
- to allow students to understand the normative dimension of political problems on a global scale with special reference to the functioning of international institutions;
- to enable students to discuss critically the international order and its constitutive components by way of philosophical argumentation.

This course investigates issues of justice that emerge out of conflict scenarios in the international arena. By reference to such prominent examples of conflict as that between Israelis and Palestinians as well as to such divided communities as that of Cyprus, we shall single out, analyze, and discuss the right ways, in a moral sense, to address the different demands of justice that emerge in these circumstances.
The first part of the course aims at introducing students to the current philosophical debate in the field of global justice. We shall review the two most influential approaches in the field, cosmopolitanism and statism. We shall then distinguish the different dimensions of justice (as differentiated from those of legitimacy) that are implied in these approaches, with special reference to the distinction between the commitment to realizing justice in the outcomes or in the procedures of international cooperation. In the second part of the course, we shall focus on the forms of injustice that may affect the qualities of international relations when cooperative dynamics are disrupted by conflicts. In particular, we shall discuss different theories and practices of conflict resolution, conflict containment, and conflict management in view of their capacity of realizing different demands of justice and peace.

Relevant questions include:
- Should the same principles of justice that apply at the domestic level be extended globally?
- Are there demands of justice that apply to individuals globally? Or should all demands of justice be discharged within the boundaries of the nation state?
- Are the demands of global justice distinguishable from those of international legitimacy?
- Are procedures of international cooperation valuable in themselves or just as instruments to bring about certain desirable outcomes?
- What demands of justice arise out of conflict scenarios in the international arena? And should we prioritize seeking justice or peace in such scenarios?
- What is a just transition from antagonism to cooperation in the dynamics of a conflict?
- What are the moral limits to the acceptability of compromises to tame international conflicts?

The course includes a mixture of lectures, seminars, and case-based discussion. In particular, we shall discuss the questions above with the help of a selection of readings and case studies apt to illustrate the different demands of justice in conflict scenarios at the global level. Students are encouraged to adopt an active and critical approach to these readings and to the discussion of the case studies. All students are required to do the assigned readings and examine the materials for the case studies and prepare at least one question/critical remark for the general discussion in class.

(a) Ceva, E., Interactive Justice, London: Routledge, 2016.

(b) Adamides, Costantinos, ‘Comfortable Conflict and (Il)liberal Peace in Cyprus’, Hybrid Forms of Peace: From Everyday Agency to Post-Liberalism, eds. Richmond O. and Mitchell A. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 242-259Amighetti, Sara, Nuti, Alasia ‘Achieving Historical Justice Through Democratic Deliberation’, Journal of Political Philosophy 23, 4 (2015): 385-405.
(c) Cloke, K., ‘The Culture of Mediation: Settlement vs. Resolution’, Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: December 2005 .
(d) Fitzduff, M., ‘Meta- Conflict Resolution’, Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: September 2004 http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/meta-conflict-resolution
(e) Luban, D., ‘Bargaining and Compromise: Recent Work on Negotiation and Informal Justice’, Philosophy & Public Affairs 14, 4 (1985): 397–416.
(f) Mihai, Mihaela, ‘Transitional Justice and the Quest for Democracy: A Contribution to a Political Theory of Democratic Transformations’, Ratio Juris 23, 2 (2010): 183–204.
(g) Spangler, B. ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)’, Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: June 2003 .
(h) Saunders, Harold H., ‘Sustained Dialogue in Managing Intractable Conflict’, Negotiation Journal 19, 1 (2003): 85-95

Readings b-h and case study materials are available for download either online or from Emanuela Ceva’s Departmental Web page (http://www-3.unipv.it/webdsps/en/docente.php?id=ceva) in the “Teaching materials” section.

Assessment will be based on participation, an assessed essay, and an oral exam. The final mark will be calculated as follows: Participation, 25%; Assessed Essay, 60%; Oral Exam, 15%.

Participation
Students are expected to attend all classes and participate actively in the seminar discussions. The mark for participation will be based on the quality of students’ contributions to the seminar discussions.

Assessed essay
Students are required to write an essay on an issue addressed during the course under the supervision of the lecturer. Essays should not be longer than 4,000 words. A list of possible topics will be distributed during the course; however, students are strongly encouraged to propose original topics themselves. All essay topics will have to be approved by the lecturer.

Essays must be handed in, both by email and in hard copy, to the lecturer at least one week prior to the “appello” to which students wish to register. Essays either exceeding the word limit or handed in after the deadline will not be accepted.

Those students who fail the exam will be required to write a new essay on a different topic.

Guidelines on how to write an essay in political philosophy will be made available in due course. The guidelines include instructions concerning bibliographical references.

Oral exam
For students who have regularly attended the classes (frequentanti), the oral exam will consist only in the discussion of the essay. Students who have missed more than 4 classes (non frequentanti) are required to submit the essay and take an oral examination on the texts included in the reading list.