April 15---war on terror with Dr. Kenneth Christie

Dr. Kenneth Christie helped us understand the war on terror and maybe the other side of the coin,, our human rights!

Here is the opening to his new book.

This book is an attempt to assess the implications of the US declared war on terror for human rights on a global scale. It will deal with this mainly from a political science and international relations perspective. There has been major changes in the human rights regime adopted in the post 1945 period, many of which, it has been argued, are revolutionary in nature. These changes also became more significant during the cold war and post-cold war period. As one author argued:

The transition from a nation-state world order to a cosmopolitan world order brings about a very significant priority shift from international law to human rights. The principle that international law precedes human rights which held during the (nation-state) period of modernity is being replaced by the principle of the (world society) second age of modernity, that human rights precedes international law. As yet, the consequences have not been thought through, but they will be revolutionary.

And yet such radical consequences have not been borne out by the global events of the late 1990’s. To a large extent I will question, the accuracy of this view of the current world order. Instead of a cosmopolitan world order there is an alternative idea and reality of international relations in which a hegemonic power, the USA, is seen as trampling over international law, flouting international human rights conventions and behaving like the schoolyard bully, but in a global sense. It is acting like an imperial colossus astride the ruins of a failed bi-polar system.

Dr. Kenneth Christie