In December 2012, Santa Monica College students, staff, and faculty, voted online to choose our annual Global Citizenship theme for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years. The winning theme, which received 54% of the final vote, is:
Peace and Security: Managing Conflict and Violence in a Turbulent World
Like its predecessors, our fifth annual Global Citizenhip theme is presented as an open invitation to the campus, to be incorporated into various classes, events, and extracurricular activities throughout the year. Students, faculty, staff, and friends of the college are invited to interpret and explore the theme as a means of thinking and acting as global citizens.
As a further prompt to investigating the theme, here is how it was described on December's ballot:
In San Francisco, 25 June 1945, delegates from around the world signed the Charter for the United Nations (opens in new window) . Among the goals stated in this document are to “practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security.” Needless to say, these goals elude us. What are the sources of our conflicts, from the interpersonal to the international, and what are the sources of the all-too-often violent means with which we try to resolve them? More importantly, can we envision solutions to our existing global conflicts, and what are some of the emerging conflicts for which we should prepare?
And here are just a few of the many additional questions that could be pursued under the theme, a list that is meant to be suggestive, rather than comprehensive:
- How do we define peace? Or security? Are those concepts complementary, or do they represent two distinct alternative outcomes to managing conflict?
- How does justice provide a foundation for peace? Can true peace be achieved without a sincere sense of justice felt by all parties? In accounting for past wrongs, where is the boundary between justice and revenge? At what point do we stop fighting and simply agree to get alon
- How do modern science and technology complicate issues of peace and security, even while potentially offering us means for resolving conflict and promoting peace and security in non-violent ways?
- Is violence "hard wired" into the genetic make-up of the human species, or is it otherwise so deeply embedded in the foundation of human cultures that violence is effectively "natural" or inevitable? If so, does this somehow justify violence?
- The new world order still emerging in the aftermath of the 20th Century's "Cold War" does not appear to be one of a stable Pax Americana dominated by a singular (benign) U.S. superpower, nor of a cooperative global family of sovereign equals. Instead, a multipolar world of rapidly shifting alliances involving several global-scale powers and even larger numbers of significant regional powers appears to be the geopolitical structure of the 21st Century. Should we be more opitimistic about the chances for multilateral cooperation and a peace-encouraging balance of powers, or more pessimistic about the prospects of a perennial "clash of civilizations"?
- What will be the geopolitical impacts of climate change? How will the opening of new resource frontiers such as the Arctic, or the geographic redistribution of current resources such as rainfall, alter the balance of power regionally and globally?
In addition to choosing their preferred theme for 2013-15, voters were asked to list books, films, or other resources that might be used in support of that theme. Their suggestions are listed below, several of which we have associated with previous years' themes, as well, illustrating the overlapping and interwoven nature of global issues. We are always interested in receiving additional ideas that could be used to develop the theme. Please share your suggestions via to globalcitizenship@smc.edu. We also would welcome short descriptions of any of the resources listed below so that we can develop a more robust, annotated bibliography/webliography in support of the theme. And if you would like to write a more complete review essay on one or more of these resources, please consider contributing to our SMC Global Citzenship blog (opens in new window) .
Recommended Reading
The following is the initial, preliminary list developed during the theme-selection process. A more complete, evolving bibliography is maintained at our Goodreads site (opens in new window) , where you can contribute your own suggestions. If you have an SMC e-mail address, you can also join our Global Citizenship Goodreads group (opens in new window) , and participate in an online discussion about the theme, related readings, and help us select a common campus read for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years.
- Ali Abunimah, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (opens in new window)
- Hannah Arendt, On Violence (opens in new window)
- David Barash, ed., Approaches to Peace: A Reader in Peace Studies (opens in new window)
- Shannon Biggs, The Rights of Nature: The Case for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth (opens in new window)
- Miles Bredin, Blood on the Tracks: A Rail Journey From Angola To Mozambique (opens in new window)
- Alison Brysk, Globalization and Human Rights (opens in new window)
- Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (opens in new window)
- Jared Cohen, Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East (opens in new window)
- Jillian Edelstein, Truth and Lies: Stories from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa (opens in new window)
- Franklin Foer, How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization (opens in new window)
- Basma Hamdy et al., Walls of Freedom: Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution (opens in new window)
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace (opens in new window)
- Arthur Herman, Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age (opens in new window)
- Henry Kissinger, On China (opens in new window)
- Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (opens in new window)
- Nicholas D. Kristof, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (opens in new window)
- Simon Kuper, Soccer Against the Enemy: How the World's Most Popular Sport Starts and Fuels Revolutions and Keeps Dictators in Power (opens in new window)
- Bruce Lawrence, ed., On Violence: A Reader (opens in new window)
- Stephanie Mills, On Gandhi's Path (opens in new window)
- Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time (opens in new window)
- Henry Nau, Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, Ideas (opens in new window)
- George Orwell, 1984 (opens in new window)
- John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman (opens in new window)
- Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (opens in new window)
- Michael Ruppert, Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World (opens in new window)
- Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (opens in new window)
- David Swanson, War is a Lie (opens in new window)
- Susan Williams, Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa (opens in new window)
- Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World (opens in new window)
- Howard Zinn et al., A People's History of American Empire (opens in new window)
Recommended Viewing
- The Baader Meinhof Complex (opens in new window) (2008)
- Blood Diamond (opens in new window) (2006)
- Blue Gold: World Water Wars (opens in new window) (2008)
- Body of War (opens in new window) (2007)
- Born on the Fourth of July (opens in new window) (1989)
- Bowling for Columbine (opens in new window) (2002)
- The Circle (opens in new window) (2000)
- The Corporation (opens in new window) (2003)
- Earth (opens in new window) (1998)
- The Edukators (opens in new window) (2004)
- Full Metal Jacket (opens in new window) (1987)
- Gandhi (opens in new window) (1982)
- Green Street Hooligans (opens in new window) (2005)
- Head-On (opens in new window) (2004)
- The Hunger Games (opens in new window) (2012)
- I Am (opens in new window) (2010)
- Inglourious Basterds (opens in new window) (2009)
- John Rabe (opens in new window) (2009)
- Johnny Got His Gun (opens in new window) (1971)
- Lincoln (opens in new window) (2012)
- The Lives of Others (opens in new window) (2006)
- Offside (opens in new window) (2006)
- Paths of Glory (opens in new window) (1957)
- The Pianist (opens in new window) (2002)
- A Separation (opens in new window) (2011)
- Tao of Peace (opens in new window) (2010)
Note: To select this year's theme, we utilized an Instant-Runoff Voting system (opens in new window) , which asked voters to rank their relative preferences for five nominees. As in previous years, all of the nominated ideas received significant first-choice support, so that none garnered as much as a quarter of the vote. One by one, the least preferred themes each round were dropped, and voters were re-assigned, as necessary, to their next preferred themes. In the end, the vote became a run-off between the two most popular choices, with the winning theme selected by a margin of eight percentage points. Here are the tabulations for each round of voting.
1. Communication and Community, 180 votes (24%)
1. Peace and Security, 174 (23%)
1. Belief, 171 (22%)
1. Power and Energy, 132 (17%)
1. Migration and Mobility, 108 (14%)
1. Peace and Security, 208 (28%)
1. Communication and Community, 201 (27%)
1. Belief, 189 (25%)
1. Power and Energy, 152 (20%)
1. Peace and Security, 282 (39%)
1. Communication and Community, 247 (34%)
1. Belief, 203 (28%)
1. Peace and Security, 386 (54%)
1. Communication and Community, 326 (46%)