Review of The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy

Rory J. Conces reviews The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy. Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber, with a new Foreword by Stefan Collini. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017, ISBN: 978-1-4875-2185-1.

A Physcialist Theory of Managing Impediments to Democracy and Peace Building in the Balkans

The post-conflict societies of Bosnia and Kosovo continue to be plagued by the deleterious effects of ethno-nationalism and ethnic enclaves. Unfortunately, this mix impedes both democracy and peace building within these Balkan countries. One way to promote such building is for these enclaves to collapse, thereby allowing multiethnic societies to develop. This essay proposes that enclaves be dealt with physically by ridding them of those evocative objects that help to create and maintain enclaves. By getting physical in this way, how¬ever, we find ourselves in a dilemma, caught on the horns of legality and expediency. Yet there is a promising path between the horns that involves civic design. This essay offers a physicalist theory of managing these impediments to democracy and peace building, beginning with four hypotheses, followed by an abstraction and mathematization in the form of a matrix, a dilemma arising from these hypotheses, and possible solutions

A Physcialist Theory of Managing Impediments to Democracy and Peace Building in the Balkans

The post-conflict societies of Bosnia and Kosovo continue to be plagued by the deleterious effects of ethno-nationalism and ethnic enclaves. Unfortunately, this mix impedes both democracy and peace building within these Balkan countries. One way to promote such building is for these enclaves to collapse, thereby allowing multiethnic societies to develop. This essay proposes that enclaves be dealt with physically by ridding them of those evocative objects that help to create and maintain enclaves. By getting physical in this way, however, we find ourselves in a dilemma, caught on the horns of legality and expediency. Yet there is a promising path between the horns that involves civic design. This essay offers a physicalist theory of managing these impediments to democracy and peace building, beginning with four hypotheses, followed by an abstraction and mathematization in the form of a matrix, a dilemma arising from these hypotheses, and possible solutions

Notes from the Editor

Introduction to volume 11. Notes from International Dialogue\u27s Editor-in-Chief, Rory J. Conce

Rethinking Realism (or Whatever) and the War on Terrorism in a Place Like the Balkans

Political realism remains a powerful theoretical framework for thinking about international relations, including the war on terrorism. For Morgenthau and other realists, foreign policy is a matter of national interest defined in terms of power. Some writers view this tenet as weakening, if not severing, realism\u27s link with morality. I take up the contrary view that morality is embedded in realist thought, as well as the possibility of realism being thinly and thickly moralised depending on the moral psychology of the agents. I argue that a prima facie case can be made within a thinly moralised realism for a relatively weak ally like Bosnia to enter the war on terrorism. An inflationary model of morality, however, explains how the moral horror of genocide in an ally\u27s past may lead to a thickened moralised realism such that allied policy-makers question their country\u27s entry into the war

Normative Ambiguity Facing Those Who Flee Death during Times of War and Pandemic and Who Eventually Return Home

We dwell in a world of physical things. When it comes to the environments that we live in, we usually become oriented to the place, and eventually feel at home in it. Facing death during war and pandemic are times of extreme disorientation, and we sometimes exhibit an impulse to flee. It is no wonder that in those desperate times, some with means and ability consider fleeing to a safer place. But are we morally obliged to act in ways that would ask us to sacrifice our deepest personal commitments and projects for others to meet their commitments and projects? It is argued here that fleeing Bosnia and Herzegovina during wartime, like what happened in the 90s, and fleeing a city during a pandemic may be morally decent actions. However, it is also an issue of political decency and fractured friendships. In cases or war and pandemic, returning home to contribute to the well-being of those they left behind may be morally and politically decent, but the fractured friendships may contribute to normative ambiguity. Why would anyone trust them again and regard them as a loyal friend? Perhaps reestablishing those trusting friendships may require those who remained behind to do what is supererogatory, i.e., doing more than can reasonably be asked of them, which in this case amounts to forgiving those who fled and giving them a second chance by welcoming them back home

Book Review: \u3ci\u3eTo End a War\u3c/i\u3e

If asked to name career diplomats who have tackled some very difficult international crises, many foreign policy makers would put Richard Holbrooke near the top of the list. Not many negotiators have wielded moral principle, power, and reason as well as Holbrooke. His book on the Bosnia negotiations leading up to the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement is timely, given the ethnic cleansing that is being carried out in Kosovo, a southern province of Yugoslavia\u27s Serb Republic. Once again we are faced with unrest in the Balkans. We have seen the daily newspaper headlines change from 24 Albanian Men Killed in Kosovo and Hopes Fade for New Kosovo Talks to NATO Air Campaign Expanded and Chinese Embassy Bombed in Belgrade. Although talk of Bosnian Muslims, the Bosnian Army and Srebrenica\u27 has been replaced with Kosovars, the Kosovo Liberation Army, and Rogovo, two of the main actors in the Bosnia negotiations have returned to put their stamp on the Kosovo negotiations: President Slobodan Milosevic and U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke. Unfortunately, Holbrooke\u27s words that begin the last paragraph of his book seem to have come true: There will be other Bosnias in our lives. With that in mind, Holbrooke\u27s book will best he appreciated as a harbinger of things to come in Kosovo and elsewhere

Notes from the Editor

Notes from International Dialogue\u27s Editor-in-Chief, Rory J. Conces for Volume 5