A World in Crisis: Conflict and the Future of Global Justice

The world faces multiple political and moral crises today. War and genocide are livestreamed across the world but see little action from dominant states and political leaders. Despite the existence of a sophisticated international humanitarian law, there is a lack of political will to enforce it. At the same time, rising anti-immigration and anti-refugee sentiment have resulted in ever tightening border policies across North America and Western Europe, as well as measures that blatantly violate human rights such as deportations to prisons. Moreover, increased geopolitical tensions have spurred military buildups as concerns over national security grow. Against this background of crisis, what is the future of global justice? How, if at all, should recent political developments around the world inform our theories of global justice, and indeed the practice of international political theory itself? Is global justice, under these circumstances, at all an achievable ideal, or should we instead settle for goals that are more realistic for a world in conflict, such as peace and stability? How should we think about the legitimacy of international law, human rights, and global institutions? How ought citizens and other kinds of non-state actors respond to the current political moment? We invite paper and panel submissions that reflect on the questions above and any other questions related to conflict and crisis. Panels envisaged include: 1. The End of Asylum? Ethics and the Future of Refugee Protection (Felix Bender, Northumbria University) 2. Critical Theory and Global Justice: Reimagining Normativity in a Destabilized World (Petra Gümplová, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Brian Milstein, University of Limerick) 3. Democracy and Big Tech: Problems of Transnational Domination (Markus Patberg, University of Hamburg) 4. Social Cohesion in a World in Conflicts (Cord Schmelzle and Hendrik Simon, Goethe-University Frankfurt) Further proposals for panels and papers are invited.