Guido Montani Routledge, August 2018
In Supranational Political Economy: The Globalisation of the State–Market Relationship, Guido Montani argues for a supranational approach to global governance that will be a better balance between politics and economics. In making his argument, Montani covers the birth and development of international political economy from Bretton Woods through globalization, including current disorder and crises. A supranational approach would follow the principles on which European political and economic integration was built. The system suggested by Montani would accelerate the convergence of rich and poor countries in the aim of a more sustainable global system, while considering globalization and the current ecological challenges as both causes of social discontent and an opportunity. The book demonstrates how a ‘supranational’ world order enables us to view globalization, world capitalism, and the ecological crises as processes that can be governed. In postwar Europe nation states that had been enemies began a process of integration which led to the abolition of inter-European national borders. With supranational global governance, the same, it is suggested, could be achieved in the global system.
The Responsibility to Protect: From Promise to Practice
Alex J Bellamy and Edward C Luck
Polity Press, November 2018
It has been over ten years since the international community adopted the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), “a political commitment to end the worst forms of violence and persecution. It seeks to narrow the gap between Member States’ pre-existing obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and the reality faced by populations at risk of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity” (United Nations). However, these pledges to support the R2P principle have failed or often been ignored. In The Responsibility to Protect: From Promise to Practice, Alex Bellamy and Edward Luck examine this question by looking past the United Nations and individual states and at the bigger picture of who is present when conflict-affected and other vulnerable populations are at risk. Bellamy, director of the Asia Pacific Centre for R2P and a professor at the University of Queensland, and Prof. Luck, former Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect and currently at the University of San Diego, are well placed to investigate what would be the best, next approach. In the end, Bellamy and Luck suggest that short-term policies to address emergency situations be combined with policies that will enable longer term change. These are the key to avoiding future crises of the sort we see currently in Syria and Libya.
Edward Burtynsky with Jennifer Baichwal, and Nick de Pencier
Steidl, November 2018
The book Anthropocene is part of the Anthropocene Project, a “multidisciplinary body of work combining fine art photography, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research to nvestigate human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth.” Utilizing photographs rom Edward Burtynsky that are also part of the exhibition, the book includes essays from the authors and others.
The major museum exhibition was at Art Galleries in Toronto and Ottawa, Canada during 2018 and also will open at Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione e Tecnologia (MAST) in Bologna in the Spring of 2019.
The film, which has been playing in Canada, will have its international premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
Further details and content can be found at theanthropocene.org.
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