2020-2021: Global Ethics in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities
As the COVID-19 pandemic works its way across the globe, few if any nations are immune from unprecedented threats to health and economic stability. One commentator posits that the crisis is forcing us to “rethink how the world works together.” And other daunting questions arise: What ethical, political, and economic questions about the international world order were being framed before the pandemic, and have those questions changed in nature or become all the more important? In 2020-21, the Mudd Center for Ethics and the Center for International Education will collaborate on a vital series exploring the nature of ethical responsibilities in international relations pre- and post-pandemic, the moral consequences of various approaches to foreign policy, and the potential replacements for the post-World War II liberal international order. Speakers from different perspectives and disciplines will probe the implications of the crisis for public health, the global economy, and continuing concerns over climate change and food shortages. We hope to prompt serious discussion of these and other issues that appear to have put “global ethics” at the top of the current policy agenda.