Intergenerational Justice Review

Richard Falk / David Krieger: The Path to Zero: Dialogues on Nuclear Dangers

Gordon Hertel — 2024-12-13

Juliana Bidadanure: Justice Across Ages: Treating Young and Old as Equals

Grace Clover — 2024-12-13

Towards a long-term peace approach: A phenomenological analysis of contemporary and emerging conflicts

Augustine Akah — 2024-12-13

In today’s multilateral and conflict-ridden world, the proliferation of nuclear weapons gives humanity the means to bring about its extinction. The war in Ukraine and other tensions around the world have made the deployment of nuclear weapons more likely than ever. Given these unprecedented threats, a conscious effort towards building long-term peace is crucial. This study follows four levels of inquiry. First, it explores the theoretical views of armed conflicts, analysing their causes and their consequences. Second, it conceptualises peace initiatives in the context of peace and conflict studies, exploring these definitions in relation to their significance for future generations. Third, it reviews existing peacebuilding approaches from different perspectives and re-emphasises their strengths and shortcomings in the face of emerging conflicts. Fourth and crucially, it proposes three levels of global priority for achieving long-term peace, ultimately arguing for the central role of the UN in peacebuilding initiatives. This study justifies how eliminating nuclear weapons and encouraging proactive diplomacy are crucial steps for achieving long-term peace.

Challenges and prospects for long-term peacekeeping in the Anthropocene

Lukas Kiemele — 2024-12-13

In recent years, the concept of the ‘Anthropocene’ has increasingly become a central analytical scheme for current social and ecological crises. Based on the thesis that the structural problems of the present arise from unresolved injustices between past generations, which reproduce a life-threatening danger towards future generations, this essay calls central assumptions underlying modernity into question. This essay illuminates the relationship between ecological crises, colonialism, and the classical humanist historiography of modernity. Ultimately, this essay concludes that the possibility of securing long-term peace is only feasible with radical social, economic, and political transformations, without which our idea of peace will remain deficient in the future.

IGJR-Editors — 2024-12-13

Editorial