UNREST MAGAZINE

Scholar and author Vivienne Jabri recently gave a fantastic lecture at The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution on the relationship of critical theory to the contemporary practice of conflict resolution and humanitarian intervention.  Jabri discusses the contributions of Kant, Habermas, Foucault, and Arendt to the pressing issues of intervention today, specifically in the cases of  Western visions for Afghanistan and Syria.  Her remarks make apparent the necessity of critical thought to the field of peace and conflict studies, and we at Unrest Magazine look to Jabri as one of the few thinkers within the field who champion the conversation we have tried to help further.  Unrest contributor and renowned author/scholar Richard E. Rubenstein is part of the Q&A session in the second video.  Rubenstein presses Jabri on the contributions of Marx and materialism, which Jabri connects to the neoliberal project and the need to support post-colonial resistance movements within the above mentioned conflicts.  Jabri’s lecture begins around the 16:50 mark of the first video.
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Unrest Magazine and The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution hosted a conversation on the future of Occupy Wall St. and 2012 U.S. Presidential Elections.  A video of the event can be accessed here at the bottom of the page:  http://scar.gmu.edu/event/13406.
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Q. In REASONS TO KILL, you study the arguments that pro-war advocates have made throughout American history as we’ve mobilized for war. What reoccurring themes did you find in our rhetorical and philosophical strategies?

Richard E. Rubenstein.  This book is not about the factors that motivate elites to make war. Elites have many reasons to fight, including economic interests, geopolitical ambitions, and domestic political motives. The basic question I ask is: What convinces ordinary Americans to send their kinfolk, friends, and countrymen to kill other people and risk their own bodies and minds in battle? The overall answer, I find, is that we are persuaded to fight by appeals to widely shared and deeply held moral values – values associated with what some call our civil religion.
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