Scienza e Pace
Science and Peace
The study focuses on the Chilean constituent process scheduled for the second semester of 2022: we propose to analyse the legal and political debate which the need for a constitutional change has been generating in the last several years with particular regard to the issue of the justiciability of social rights. In examining these problems, from a methodological point of view, a moderately skeptical position toward the normative potential of the general theory of law is implicitly defended. According to this framework, the normative consideration of conceptual problems always needs to be integrated by the evaluation of contingent legal, political and social factors. We aim to show that there is no rigid causal link between the presence of a wide catalogue of social rights in a constitution and the satisfaction of the benefits associated with them. On the other hand, the study aims to show that the symbolic and expressive meaning associated with the possible reaffirmation of the founding values of constitutional texts is even more important in a society characterized, like the Chilean one, by a long-standing tendency to go against the redistributive principles that inspire the logic of social rights.
The situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban have returned to power is extremely critical, carrying thousands of people to the border. EU member states are required to act in response to the humanitarian crisis, as the emergency evacuation carried out in August cannot be the only initiative being undertaken by governments. The article will analyze the legal instruments used to authorize entries of Afghan nationals into Europe and Italy, focusing especially on potentialities and critical issues related to humanitarian visas and humanitarian admission programs, within the current framework of migration policies at the national and supranational level. The study will then focus on a different aspect, also influenced by state discretion: the evaluation of asylum applications submitted by Afghan migrants in recent years in Europe. The authors will highlight the main reasons for diversity among Member States, mainly when assessing the level of indiscriminate violence in the country for the recognition of subsidiary protection, and they will examine the case law on the extension of national courts’ review procedures in cases of appeal against transfers decided by the Dublin Unit, to offer a perspective on the degree of effectiveness of protection granted to Afghan nationals across Europe.
This paper aims to bring some order to the rich theoretical and empirical discussion on the phenomenon of populism through a critical discussion of the concept. Although a negative interpretation of populism is widespread, especially in public and journalistic discourse, academic effort has produced remarkable results in identifying and circumscribing this important and current phenomenon. These pages will attempt to highlight (1) the theoretical contribution by scholars from various disciplines, (2) the multiple forms of populism as a social and political phenomenon, and finally (3) the relationship between populism and power. These are the three lines of analysis on which this paper is organized. It will also conclude with some considerations on the so-called "populist moment" and the convergence between technocracy and populism in the contemporary political and institutional landscape.
Unrecognized work, perhaps a little dated or in any case little frequented by Italian scholars, Gaston Bouthoul’s Le Guerre remains a source of numerous intellectual stimuli, useful for deciphering the sociological meaning of Man's behavior in war and, in addition, the different cultural and organizational models to which human societies refer over time. To the questions posed by the author: "why does man make war?"; “for what reasons the violent conflict between peoples or single individuals arises?”; even without explicitly constructing ideal-types, Bouthoul seems to respond through an accurate analysis of specific and recurring models of social action. Our aim, therefore, in this brief study of the sociology of war, is the theoretical reworking of four fighter figures (the volunteer, the fanatic, the mercenary and the conscript). Using passages and textual references from the work, the Research Paper intends to focus on the reasons and meanings that individuals attribute to their military conduct; without neglecting the analysis of the social consequences that these ways of acting produce on the structure of groups and relationships between men.
Terrorism has become a reality in many parts of the world. Although it goes back millennia and has been present over the centuries, it became more prominent in the world with events such as the campaigns against Israel, including the 1972 Munich Olympics attacks, the actions of Al Qaeda including the 9/11 attacks, and the attacks by ISIS in the Middle East, Europe, and elsewhere. There was also a major wave of attacks by extreme leftist groups in West Europe beginning in the late 1960s and in other places, as well as violence by ethnic nationalist movements. As terrorism continues to be a threat to governments and populations, it has been suggested that one consequence of terrorist violence has been negative economic impacts. The analyses to follow will concentrate on the economic effects of terrorist campaigns by Basque nationalist groups in Spain, Irish republican groups operating in Northern Ireland, and Italian extremist groups such as the Brigate Rosse (BR).
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global shock with dramatic consequences on debts of the governments which were called to alleviate the economic and social impact of the crisis on firms and households. We explore conditions for the feasibility of (COVID-19 generated) government debt relief concerning bonds held by the ECB, which can be justified by the exogenous characteristics of the shock. We outline several technically and economically feasible ways (involving debt “freezing”, debt rescheduling or outright debt cancellation) for achieving this goal and discuss their consequences on moral hazard and on the European Central Bank balance sheets. We also examine their potential impact on ECB’s independence, reputation and, ultimately, on inflation and exchange rates. We further discuss the distributive concerns which arise for a CB operating in a Union with several sovereign member states as in the Eurozone.
Call for papers
War in Ukraine: analyzing the causes and exploring nonviolent solutions
At the sunrise of February 24, 2022 the military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has begun, surprising many observers (but not all of them) and opening scenarios that, after more than four months of war, still appear largely unpredictable, including a possible nuclear escalation.
Few recent wars have received more media coverage than the current one in Ukraine. Most Western media have given wide coverage to violence and violations of international law by the Russian army, the Ukrainian self-defence efforts symbolized by the President of the country, and the dramatic suffering of the Ukrainian civilian population, forced to flee on an unprecedented scale and speed in recent European history: during the first four months of war, more than 7,5 million people left the country, mainly women and children, although 2,4 million of people in the meanwhile came back to Ukraine. Casualties among Ukrainian civilians are at least 20.000, but those data are probably underestimated.
The political polarization caused by the war, although understandable, has made it difficult to develop a lucid analysis of the conflict and its multiple causes, which is a necessary precondition for an authentic and durable peace process between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, within a new European and international security system. Simplifications induced by a “war-driven state of mind” have instead, very often, tried to dismiss "complexity" as a rhetorical tool used by those refusing to take a position. Efforts to understand the causes of the conflict have been dismissed as an attempt to justify the Russian invasion. Diplomacy and forms of unarmed and nonviolent resistance have been ridiculed as unrealistic and misrepresented as a way to deny Ukraine's right to self-defence.
As a result, Western governments and part of Western public opinion have seen economic sanctions and the sending of weapons - more and more lethal and sophisticated - as the only way to support Ukraine and stop the conflict, aiming at the complete defeat of the Russian Federation without asking, for example, what consequences would be implied by such approach.
The decision of many European governments, starting with the German one, although after much hesitation, to significantly increase military spending even to the detriment of social spending, clearly indicates a tendency towards rearmament. This perspective appears hardly compatible with peace and well-being of people, especially at a time when poverty and inequality are increasing, and public resources should be invested as a priority in the ecological transition.
In such a critical historical phase, we believe that the world of research is called to question itself in order to offer in-depth and reasoned analyses of the ongoing war and, above all, to propose viable solutions of conflicts. These solutions should include unarmed and nonviolent strategies, in order to solve and prevent international disputes, starting with the current one opposing the Russian Federation on one side and Ukraine, supported by the United States, the European Union, and the NATO, on the other.
For these reasons, we invite experts from various disciplines to submit research papers to the journal that discuss and shed light in particular on the following aspects:
- proximate and ultimate causes of the ongoing war in Ukraine;
- theories, practices, historical examples, conditions for the effectiveness of unarmed defence, nonviolent resistance, and peaceful conflict resolution, generally applicable in today's world and particularly in the Ukrainian context, with the aim of creating the conditions for diplomatic solution of disputes;
- uses of different types of media in the ongoing war and responsibility of journalism for the resolution or the escalation of the conflict;
- phenomena of internal displacement and forced emigration of civilians, with particular attention to the policies adopted by the European Union as a whole and by member states;
- local and global effectiveness and effects of economic sanctions as a tool against military aggression or against violation of international law, in the Ukrainian war and in other cases;
- environmental damages and public health hazards associated with military operations in Ukraine;
- legality, legitimacy, and opportunity of military interventions in support of a country invaded or marked by serious violations of human rights;
- new perspectives for international peace and security, with a focus on the role of international and regional organizations, on the role of international jurisdictions (International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, etc.), and on issues of disarmament;
- medium and long-term geopolitical, economic, and social impacts of the ongoing war in Ukraine, in relation to the multiple crises (energy, climate, health, food, etc.) that world society is facing today.
Instruction for the authors
In order to participate to the call, please send a 300-word abstract to the editorial board of the journal (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Abstract submission deadline: 31 August 2022. Acceptance will be communicated by 10 September 2022. The complete Research paper - in Italian, English or Spanish - should be submitted by 30 November 2022, and will be subjected to an anonymous peer-review procedure. We recommend the authors comply with the editorial guidelines of the journal by drafting the Research paper.