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Call for Papers Theme: For Man or Country Subtitle: Cosmopolitanism and Patriotism in Democratic Armies Type: International Conference Institution: Institut de Recherches Philosophiques de Lyon (IRPhiL), University of Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 Location: Lyon (France) Date: 5.–6.5.2016 Deadline: 29.11.2015 __________________________________________________ A cosmopolitan account of international politics should include the possibility to resort to military force in the eventuality of major human rights abuses. It thus needs a cosmopolitan just war theory. This in turns implies that armies can be effectively motivated to fight for cosmopolitan ideals. However, armies even in democratic societies tend rather to cultivate a patriotic partiality towards their own country. Patriotism is a virtue which most members of the military consider essential to their ability to function effectively as an army. To this day, even humanitarian wars led by the United Nations (UN) do not employ a truly cosmopolitan army but separated, national contingents acting on behalf of the UN. The efficiency of national armies seems to rely on a specific war culture which stems from the nation’s military history and cannot be meshed with other war cultures. Patriotism, in short, is an essential and necessary component of any democratic army. This view poses a challenge to cosmopolitanism. If an army were truly unable to be motivated by human rights for human rights’ sake, it could easily lead to jus in bello infringements. Although a war might have a just cause, soldiers who are insensible to the justice of this cause might be more likely to engage in war crimes. Also, if human rights are only instrumental to the fulfillment of the national interests of democratic countries but have no intrinsic value during war, it is to be feared that the former are in fact no more than an ideological veneer aimed at soothing public opinion’s concern. This would cast doubts upon the sincerity of any ad bellum justification on cosmopolitan grounds, and would eventually dismiss any cosmopolitan theory of just war as postcolonial hypocrisy. Little philosophical research has been devoted to the role and function of the military in democratic societies. Although contemporary literature on civic virtues, republicanism and liberal nationalism did ponder on the relevance of some degree of partiality toward one’s own country, it did so within the context of civil society in general. The implications of this debate on our understanding of a democratic army have failed to raise an interest. Yet the necessity to maximize efficiency in war gives further weight to the importance of patriotic ties between national soldiers. The military is thus a primary instantiation of what Seyla Benhabib described as “the paradox of democratic legitimacy”. In this case, it is the tension between a justification of the resort to war in terms of universal human rights enforcements and an army relying on a particular national identity and bonding mechanism. Is it possible to articulate the level of normative justification of war and its empirical realization? How should one understand the role patriotism can play in this process? Is patriotism one step in the development of a truly cosmopolitan army, insomuch as universal moral principles are best embedded in democratic regimes? Or, against this bottom-up perspective, should we endeavor to build a cosmopolitan army independently of national sovereignties, regardless of the apparent lack of motivation of the latter to do so? Possible topics include (but are not limited to): - Normative and/or historical analysis of the role of patriotism in democratic armies - Cosmopolitan accounts of patriotism from an analytical or a continental perspective - Critiques of cosmopolitanism from an analytical perspective (liberal nationalism…) or a continental perspective (Marxism, postcolonial studies…) - Can cosmopolitanism integrate military patriotism within a just war theory, and how? - Within the context of a war, do human rights have an intrinsic value or merely an instrumental one? - Can patriotic partiality or solidarity toward fellow soldiers constitute a justification for engaging or taking part in an unjust war? Please note: This CFP concerns both the oral presentation to the conference and the publication of the presentation as an article in the IRPhiL philosophical journal. Submission: Please send a 300-400 words abstract suitable for a 30 minutes presentation. The papers should be written in English or French. Graduate students are also encouraged to send in their contributions. Please send an unsigned abstract as well as a paper with your name, affiliation and presentation title to kevin.bu...@etu.univ-lyon3.fr no later than November 29th, 2015. The final version of your paper will be published in an issue of IRPhiL’s philosophical, peer-reviewed journal, Ethique, Politique, Religions in the following months. Note that the full revised article should be between 6,000 and 12,000 words (in English or French) and should be delivered shortly after the event. See its website for more information on the journal: http://irphil.univ-lyon3.fr/revue-ethique-politique-religions Guest speakers: Cecile Fabre (Oxford University) Isabelle Delpla (Lyon 3) More information about IRPhiL: http://irphil.univ-lyon3.fr Contact: Kévin Buton-Maquet Institut de Recherches Philosophiques de Lyon University of Jean Moulin Lyon 3 18 rue Chevreul F-69007 Lyon France Email: kevin.bu...@etu.univ-lyon3.fr __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
