Global Transformations and Ethical Visions: Lessons and Legacies from the Cold War

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.