2004
Empire and World Order
Florence, April 22 and 23, 2004
During the last few years, particularly those following the collapse of the Soviet Union, processes of globalization and technological innovation have opened a new chapter in the history of mankind. The resulting transformation increasingly has become intertwined with the emergence of the United States as the exclusive center of a new international order. Realistically, this preeminence cannot be ignored: it has raised enormous political, legal, ethical, and cultural problems and, in some perspectives, has reshaped the world in the shape of a new empire.
With the intent of exploring this issue from different national perspectives and contributing at a critical moment to the further development of a dialogue between the United States and Europe, the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, Florence/Naples, and the Robbins Collection co-organized a conference entitled "Empire and World Order," which took place in Florence on April 22 and 23, 2004, and brought together a select group of high-level government officials and scholars from the United States with distinguished scholars and opinion leaders from Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain. Program sessions were conducted as panel discussions on topics including "Law and the Use of Force," "Convergence and Divergence of World Cultures" and "New World Order and the Future of the Nation-State." Events concluded with a final plenary session before a larger audience of invited guests and select members of the press.
American participants included Professors Joseph Sax, Martin Shapiro, and John Yoo, School of Law, UC Berkeley; Honorable Michael Chertoff of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; Christopher DeMuth, president of the American Enterprise Institute; Terry Eastland, publisher of The Weekly Standard; and William J. Haynes, General Counsel, Department of Defense.
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