Online Exclusive 09/17/2018 Blog

What We've Been Reading

From the Editors

Welcome to our roundup of monthly news and current events related to ethics and international affairs! Here’s what we’ve been reading:

Intersection of Wilhemstrasse and Mohrenstrasse, Berlin (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The New York Times: The Big Hole in Germany's Nazi Reckoning? Its Colonial History

Activists call for the renaming of streets that currently honor German colonizers in Berlin's African Quarter, while the German government attempts to reconcile with its bloody past in Namibia.

Read more on human rights violations, transitional justice, and reconciliation in Ethics & International Affairs:

Choosing Among Alternative Responses to Mass Atrocity: Between the Individual and the Collectivity (September 2015)

Book Review: The Gender of Reparations: Unsettling Sexual Hierarchies While Redressing Human Rights Violations Edited by Ruth Rubio-Marin (Volume 24.2)

An Ethic of Political Reconciliation (Volume 23.4)


UNDP's Response to Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, 2015 (Photo Credit: UNDP Flickr)

Guardian: Climate change driving up malnutrition rates in Pacific, UN warns

The recent Pacific Islands Forum warns that climate change is the "single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security, and wellbeing of the peoples of the peoples of the Pacific," as the rate of malnourished people in Oceania has increased.

Read more about climate change, the Pacific Islands, and poverty in Ethics & International Affairs:

The Changing Ethics of Climate Change (Volume 28.3)

The Right to Relocation: Disappearing Island Nations and Common Ownership of the Earth (Volume 23.3)

Addressing Poverty and Climate Change: The Varieties of Social Engagement (Volume 26.2)


International Criminal Court (Photo Credit: UN Flickr)

The Globe and Mail: Trump administration takes aim at International Criminal Court, PLO

National Security Adviser John Bolton threatens to use sanctions against the International Criminal Court if it attempts to try Americans for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

Read more about the International Criminal Court, American withdrawal, and international justice in Ethics & International Affairs:

Compromising Justice: Why the Bush Administration and the NGOs Are Both Wrong about the ICC (Volume 20.1)

American Withdrawal from the World? (December 2017)

Interview: Antonio Franceschet on the International Criminal Court (April 2012)


Posters for the Sweden Democrats (Photo Credit: Håkan Dahlström Flickr)

The Washington Post: Five takeaways about the Swedish election — and the far-right wave across Europe

Although often hailed as a progressive state, Sweden's recent national election saw the rise of Sweden Democrats, demonstrating the strength of the far-right movement in Europe and the increasing destabilization of European governments.

Read more about the far-right, Swedish politics, and European democracies in Ethics and International Affairs:

Briefly Noted: Far-Right Politics in Europe (June 2017)

Swedish Feminist Foreign Policy in the Making: Ethics, Politics, and Gender (Volume 30.3)

Immigration, Multiculturalism, and the Welfare State (Volume 20.3)


Former President Jacob Zuma and the President of the European Union Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, 2017 (Photo Credit: GovernmentZA Flickr)

BBC News: Juncker unveils EU's Africa Plan to counter China

The European Commission President has proposed a new alliance with Africa to create up to 10 million jobs in Africa through a free-trade agreement that would counter China's influence in the region.

Read more about China-Africa relations and global development in Ethics & International Affairs:

Book Review: "China and Africa: A Century of Engagement" (March 2013)

The Rise of China: Continuity or Change in the Global Governance of Development (Volume 29.4)

Ethics of Global Development: Agency, Capability, and Deliberative Democracy by David A. Crocker (Volume 23.4)