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Toda.eNewsletter #3



Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research
Toda.eNewsletter #3
29 October 2008


 

Dear Friends of the Toda Institute, and
Members of the Toda International Advisory Council (TIAC),

As the global financial crisis rages on, and as the world holds its breath awaiting the results of the US presidential elections, seeming to forget countless other global issues for a while, the Toda Institute continues making progress towards the enhancement of “Dialogue of Civilizations for Global Citizenship.” In this newsletter we report on our upcoming conference on Climate Change, the publication of the 13th issue of our journal Peace & Policy, ongoing discussions concerning the 2009 conference theme, and the director’s recent research trip to the UK.

The 2008 Toda Institute conference entitled “Facing Climate Change with a Renewed Environmental Ethic” will take place in Honolulu 20-23 November, and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of around 30 experts on the topic. We look forward to holding meaningful brainstorming sessions on the best way for humanity to urgently improve its relationship with the rest of the biosphere.

Peace & Policy #13 on Peace Journalism has been published by Transaction, and some of you may already have received it. If it does not reach you by 15 November, feel free to contact us.

Discussions concerning potential themes for the 2009 Toda Institute conference are still underway, and it looks like the general theme will be on global governance, more precisely on how to encourage a more humane, nurturing global governance. We invite you to send us ideas for the subthemes, which are still undefined.

Finally our director came back from his research trip to the University of Bradford UK with several interesting avenues for further exploration along three main issues: in order to enhance “Dialogue of Civilizations for Global Citizenship,” what kind of psychology, of dialogical skills and global governance are the most promising? Three strong candidates are Humanistic and Existential Psychology (Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Victor Frankl); Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” dialogical stance and Jurgen Habermas’s emphasis on Communicative Rationality; and David Held and Daniele Archibugi’s proposals for a Cosmopolitan Democracy. We would be happy to give you more details, so if you are intrigued by these ideas feel free to contact us.
 
With best regards on behalf of the Toda.eNewsletter team,
 
Olivier Urbain