American Academy Scrutinizes "Just War" Doctrine
When:
December 10, 2001
Where:
House of the Academy
136 Irving Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Click here for
a transcript of this event.
George Bush has cast the war in Afghanistan as a fight between good
and evil. What claims to a "just cause" can the United States make? How are
U.S. actions perceived in the Muslim world? How are Islamic texts being
interpreted in response to the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan?
Internationally renowned authorities J. Bryan Hehir and Roy Mottahedeh
will address these questions in a discussion sponsored by the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences. Alan Berger, editorial writer at the Boston
Globe, will moderate the conversation.
The event is the first in a series of forums to address the issues
of national and global security that have arisen in the aftermath of September
11th. Drawing upon a diverse and interdisciplinary membership, these
Academy-hosted conversations will examine the social and cultural factors
influencing terrorism and the consequences of the American reaction. In
response to religion's prominent role in the current world crisis, the Academy
has invited two of its leading Fellows to discuss the concept of a "just war"
from Islamic and Judeo-Christian perspectives.
Participants:
Roy Mottahedeh, Gurney Professor of History, Harvard University.
Professor Mottahedeh is a scholar of the pre-modern social and intellectual
history in the Islamic Middle East. His publications include Loyalty and
Leadership in an Early Islamic Society, and The Mantle of the Prophet:
Religion and Politics in Iran. He is the faculty adviser of The Harvard
Middle Eastern and Islamic Review, as well as chair of the Committee on
Islamic Studies at Harvard.
J. Bryan Hehir, Chair of the Executive Committee, Harvard
Divinity School Professor Hehir engages issues of ethics, foreign policy, and
international relations, as well as Catholic social ethics and the role of
religion in world politics. From 1973 to 1992, he served in Washington at the
U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops and at Georgetown University. He will
shortly assume the role of president & CEO of Catholic Charities and currently
serves as a counselor for Catholic Relief Services.
The American Academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams and other
scholar-patriots "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance
the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and
virtuous people." The current membership of over 3,700 Fellows and 600 Foreign
Honorary Members includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize
winners. Drawing on the wide-ranging expertise of its membership, the Academy
conducts thoughtful, innovative, non-partisan studies on international
security, social policy, education, and the humanities.
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