Charles Webel | University of New York in Prague (original) (raw)

Papers by Charles Webel

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Oct 31, 2023

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Sep 16, 2021

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

Reviewed by Charles P. Webel aaa "Reality" ain't what it used to be. That is due to the "fact" th... more Reviewed by Charles P. Webel aaa "Reality" ain't what it used to be. That is due to the "fact" that we are now living in a "post-truth" world. And this is because "the ability to separate real from artificial has become increasingly difficult." Or so claims R. McDermott, a contributor to the book under review (pp. 17-18). This notion of "post-truth," according to McDermott, relies heavily on appeals to such emotions as fear and anger. Post-truth arguments separate the specific details of a political policy from the facts; and "in a post-truth world, repetition reigns." The result, as McDermott and the editors of this book see it, is that "facts no longer weigh as heavily as the emotional triggers that politicians can elicit … [and] through these mechanisms, partisans can choose to believe the world is only as they see it …" (pp. 21-22). The consequences of abandoning, or at least subordinating, facts to ideologically convenient fictions, are potentially catastrophic, even omnicidal, since in a "post-truth" world, ill-informed and sometimes irrational policy makers who have the fate of the world in their hands are empowered to make decisions regarding the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, these political and military leaders may make such "hard choices" based on information or disinformation that may or may not reflect the reality of situation. Consequently, they may ignite Armageddon under conditions of extreme stress, induced by a range of emotional and cognitive factors, including confusion, hostility, terror, rage, "fast thinking" over calm deliberation, and a host of perceptions and misperceptions regarding the real or imagined threat and the "enemy" posing it. The reasons for this parlous state of affairs are explored by several contributors to this volume, including K. M. Greenhill, J. Lewis, and B. O' Laughlin, as well as the editors, in Chapters 6, 8, 9, and the conclusion, Chapter 10. This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Introduction: Ethics and the Real World C.Webel & J.Arnaldi PART I: UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL CHA... more Introduction: Ethics and the Real World C.Webel & J.Arnaldi PART I: UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM Overview J.Arnaldi & C.Webel War on Terror N.Chomsky Terror: The Neglected but Inescapable Core of Terrorism C.Webel Who Becomes a Terrorist Today? S.Atran Squaring the Error M.German PART II: APPLYING ETHICS TO THE WAR ON TERRORISM Overview J.Arnaldi & C.Webel Thinking About War and Justice J.Bethke Elshtain Moral Personhood and Human Security L.Calhoun Just Policing, Not War G.Schlabach Moral Responsibilities to Reduce Terror J.Johansen PART III: WINNING THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WAR: JOURNALISM AS A WEAPON Overview J.Arnaldi & C.Webel Ethics of Journalism in the War on Terrorism J.Arnaldi Faces of Death D.Kennedy Home from Iraq M.Bingham PART IV: EXAMINING THE DARK SIDE OF THE WAR ON TERROR Overview J.Arnaldi & C.Webel Leadership and Ethics for Counterinsurgency: U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual Degrading Behaviour: The Middle East and the Barbarism of the War from the Air T.Engelhardt Why are We in Afghanistan? T.Gallagher War on Terror in Pakistan C.Toffolo Where Were the Doctors? Torture and the Betrayal of Medicine L.Dossey The Agent who Might have Saved Hamid Hayat M.Arax Conclusion: The War of the World? Is There a Viable Nonviolent Alternative to the Global War on Terrorism? J.Arnaldi & C.Webel Appendix I: Geneva Conventions (Excerpts) Appendix II: Recommended Films

Journal of Strategic Studies, 2013

Abstract The war on al-Qaeda and its affiliates appears to be endless but every war must end. Win... more Abstract The war on al-Qaeda and its affiliates appears to be endless but every war must end. Winding down the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq has been difficult, but both were embedded in what was then called the ‘war on terrorism.’ What does ‘success’ in that war mean? With the death of bin Laden and the increase in drone operations, how far is the US from achieving it? Can this war end? The article analyzes the ongoing US response to the 9/11 attacks in historical context, revealing four patterns common to all prolonged wars: means become ends, tactics become strategy, boundaries are blurred, and the search for a perfect peace replaces reality. It concludes by laying out an effective strategy for ending the war.

The World as Idea In The World as Idea, Charles P. Webel presents an intellectual history of one ... more The World as Idea In The World as Idea, Charles P. Webel presents an intellectual history of one of the most influential concepts known to humanity-that of "the world." Webel traces the development of "the world" through the past, depicting the history of the world as an intellectual construct from its roots in ancient creation myths of the cosmos, to contemporary speculations about multiverses. He simultaneously offers probing analyses and critiques of "the world as idea" from thinkers ranging from Plato, Aristotle, and St. Augustine in the Greco-Roman period to Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, and Derrida in modern times. While Webel mainly focuses on Occidental philosophical, theological, and cosmological notions of worldhood and worldliness, he also highlights important non-Western equivalents prominent in Islamic and Asian spiritual traditions. This ensures the book is a unique overview of what we all take for granted in our daily existence, but seldom if ever contemplate-the world as the uniquely meaningful environment for our lives in particular and for life on Earth in general. The World as Idea will be of great interest to those interested in the concept of "world as idea," scholars in fields ranging from philosophy and history to political and social theory, and students studying philosophy, the history of ideas, and humanities courses, both general and specialized.

Mark Tomass, a native of Aleppo, Syria, outlines the ideological origins of today’s Salafi–Jihadi... more Mark Tomass, a native of Aleppo, Syria, outlines the ideological origins of today’s Salafi–Jihadi groups and argues that their presence on the intellectual, social, and political scenes in the Middle East has surged in the past forty years, due to the outward expansion of the Saudi–Wahhābī political alliance and the general anti–Western and anti-globalization movement reflected in the “Islamic Awakening” of the last two decades. Placing the September 11 terrorist attacks and the US invasion of Iraq in the context of the ideological expansion of the Salafi–Jihadi movement and the rise to power of a Muslim Brothers variant in Turkey, Tomass argues that the destruction of the Iraqi state and army and the significant weakening of those institutions in Syria less than a decade later couldn’t have come at a better time for al-Qaeda. Both the West and al-Qaeda played similar roles in creating a power vacuum that facilitated al-Qaeda’s transition to the Islamic State, in a manner which the latter had specified in detail in its 2004 manifesto “The Management of Savagery.” In accordance with its complex inception, Tomass concludes that stemming the rise of al-Qaeda cannot be confined to military means. Wahhābī doctrine has gained significant ground among the Muslim masses, to the extent that in today’s Syria, the vast majority of the rebel groups adhere to it, whether they organizationally belong to al-Qaeda, or to its daughter ISIL, or not. Genuine political reform in the Middle East will have to begin with challenging the hegemony of religious institutions over all aspects of life. Without such a challenge and a victory of reason over dogmatic religious ideology, the world must continue to live with a Middle East ruled either by secular authoritarian governments or by religious totalitarian ones.

Assessing the War on Terror, 2017

Introduction: Reason within Occidental History. 1. From the Deed to the Word: Reason and Rational... more Introduction: Reason within Occidental History. 1. From the Deed to the Word: Reason and Rationality in the Discourse of Ancient Occidental Intellectuals, Especially Plato. 2. From the State of Reason to Raison d'Etat: Machiavelli and the Historicity of all Ideals. 3. Kant: The Architectonic of Reason. 4: Max Weber: The Disenchantment of Reason with the Domination of Rationality. Conclusion: History within Reason.

Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies, 2007

Prior to the Second World War, interstate conflict was the predominant form of organized violence... more Prior to the Second World War, interstate conflict was the predominant form of organized violence in international relations. During the Cold War and the period that has followed it, intrastate violence and intercommunal conflict have replaced interstate violence as the principal form of conflict in international relations. However, what is striking about the international conflict trends is that over the past two decades the number of civil wars, measured by their frequency and aggregate levels of violence, has been on the decline. This trend is now well-documented in a large number of studies, including, most recently, the Human Security Report (Mack 2005) of the Liu Institute of International Studies at the University of British Columbia. What is also borne out in these studies is that many of these conflicts-Bosnia, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Mozambique, the conflict between North and South Sudan, El Salvador, Guatemala, the border dispute between Peru and Ecuador, and now perhaps the conflict in Aceh-have been settled or 'resolved' through a process of negotiation, upsetting a longstanding, post-Westphalian trend where wars traditionally ended when one party defeated the other on the battlefield. And even in those cases of those perennial conflicts-Israel-Palestine, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Mindanao, and Korea-that are still ongoing , negotiations between the warring parties have rarely been off the table. In terms of war termination, there are two trends to explore. The first is the apparent decline in the outbreak of wars. There is obviously a need to explore the factors or forces that are shaping and influencing these international conflict trends in order to understand better why some conflicts are diminishing and whether or not this tendency will continue (Marshall and Gurr 2005). 1 The second trend is the growing interest in negotiated settlements, which is the area that this paper will explore. The objectives of this paper are as follows: (1) to discuss why warring parties in recent years have increasingly turned to the 'negotiation option'-usually with the assistance of third parties, including third-party mediators-in order to settle their differences; and (2) to explore some of the different approaches to the study and practice of negotiation in the burgeoning conflict management literature.

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Oct 31, 2023

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Sep 16, 2021

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

Reviewed by Charles P. Webel aaa "Reality" ain't what it used to be. That is due to the "fact" th... more Reviewed by Charles P. Webel aaa "Reality" ain't what it used to be. That is due to the "fact" that we are now living in a "post-truth" world. And this is because "the ability to separate real from artificial has become increasingly difficult." Or so claims R. McDermott, a contributor to the book under review (pp. 17-18). This notion of "post-truth," according to McDermott, relies heavily on appeals to such emotions as fear and anger. Post-truth arguments separate the specific details of a political policy from the facts; and "in a post-truth world, repetition reigns." The result, as McDermott and the editors of this book see it, is that "facts no longer weigh as heavily as the emotional triggers that politicians can elicit … [and] through these mechanisms, partisans can choose to believe the world is only as they see it …" (pp. 21-22). The consequences of abandoning, or at least subordinating, facts to ideologically convenient fictions, are potentially catastrophic, even omnicidal, since in a "post-truth" world, ill-informed and sometimes irrational policy makers who have the fate of the world in their hands are empowered to make decisions regarding the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, these political and military leaders may make such "hard choices" based on information or disinformation that may or may not reflect the reality of situation. Consequently, they may ignite Armageddon under conditions of extreme stress, induced by a range of emotional and cognitive factors, including confusion, hostility, terror, rage, "fast thinking" over calm deliberation, and a host of perceptions and misperceptions regarding the real or imagined threat and the "enemy" posing it. The reasons for this parlous state of affairs are explored by several contributors to this volume, including K. M. Greenhill, J. Lewis, and B. O' Laughlin, as well as the editors, in Chapters 6, 8, 9, and the conclusion, Chapter 10. This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Introduction: Ethics and the Real World C.Webel & J.Arnaldi PART I: UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL CHA... more Introduction: Ethics and the Real World C.Webel & J.Arnaldi PART I: UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM Overview J.Arnaldi & C.Webel War on Terror N.Chomsky Terror: The Neglected but Inescapable Core of Terrorism C.Webel Who Becomes a Terrorist Today? S.Atran Squaring the Error M.German PART II: APPLYING ETHICS TO THE WAR ON TERRORISM Overview J.Arnaldi & C.Webel Thinking About War and Justice J.Bethke Elshtain Moral Personhood and Human Security L.Calhoun Just Policing, Not War G.Schlabach Moral Responsibilities to Reduce Terror J.Johansen PART III: WINNING THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WAR: JOURNALISM AS A WEAPON Overview J.Arnaldi & C.Webel Ethics of Journalism in the War on Terrorism J.Arnaldi Faces of Death D.Kennedy Home from Iraq M.Bingham PART IV: EXAMINING THE DARK SIDE OF THE WAR ON TERROR Overview J.Arnaldi & C.Webel Leadership and Ethics for Counterinsurgency: U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual Degrading Behaviour: The Middle East and the Barbarism of the War from the Air T.Engelhardt Why are We in Afghanistan? T.Gallagher War on Terror in Pakistan C.Toffolo Where Were the Doctors? Torture and the Betrayal of Medicine L.Dossey The Agent who Might have Saved Hamid Hayat M.Arax Conclusion: The War of the World? Is There a Viable Nonviolent Alternative to the Global War on Terrorism? J.Arnaldi & C.Webel Appendix I: Geneva Conventions (Excerpts) Appendix II: Recommended Films

Journal of Strategic Studies, 2013

Abstract The war on al-Qaeda and its affiliates appears to be endless but every war must end. Win... more Abstract The war on al-Qaeda and its affiliates appears to be endless but every war must end. Winding down the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq has been difficult, but both were embedded in what was then called the ‘war on terrorism.’ What does ‘success’ in that war mean? With the death of bin Laden and the increase in drone operations, how far is the US from achieving it? Can this war end? The article analyzes the ongoing US response to the 9/11 attacks in historical context, revealing four patterns common to all prolonged wars: means become ends, tactics become strategy, boundaries are blurred, and the search for a perfect peace replaces reality. It concludes by laying out an effective strategy for ending the war.

The World as Idea In The World as Idea, Charles P. Webel presents an intellectual history of one ... more The World as Idea In The World as Idea, Charles P. Webel presents an intellectual history of one of the most influential concepts known to humanity-that of "the world." Webel traces the development of "the world" through the past, depicting the history of the world as an intellectual construct from its roots in ancient creation myths of the cosmos, to contemporary speculations about multiverses. He simultaneously offers probing analyses and critiques of "the world as idea" from thinkers ranging from Plato, Aristotle, and St. Augustine in the Greco-Roman period to Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, and Derrida in modern times. While Webel mainly focuses on Occidental philosophical, theological, and cosmological notions of worldhood and worldliness, he also highlights important non-Western equivalents prominent in Islamic and Asian spiritual traditions. This ensures the book is a unique overview of what we all take for granted in our daily existence, but seldom if ever contemplate-the world as the uniquely meaningful environment for our lives in particular and for life on Earth in general. The World as Idea will be of great interest to those interested in the concept of "world as idea," scholars in fields ranging from philosophy and history to political and social theory, and students studying philosophy, the history of ideas, and humanities courses, both general and specialized.

Mark Tomass, a native of Aleppo, Syria, outlines the ideological origins of today’s Salafi–Jihadi... more Mark Tomass, a native of Aleppo, Syria, outlines the ideological origins of today’s Salafi–Jihadi groups and argues that their presence on the intellectual, social, and political scenes in the Middle East has surged in the past forty years, due to the outward expansion of the Saudi–Wahhābī political alliance and the general anti–Western and anti-globalization movement reflected in the “Islamic Awakening” of the last two decades. Placing the September 11 terrorist attacks and the US invasion of Iraq in the context of the ideological expansion of the Salafi–Jihadi movement and the rise to power of a Muslim Brothers variant in Turkey, Tomass argues that the destruction of the Iraqi state and army and the significant weakening of those institutions in Syria less than a decade later couldn’t have come at a better time for al-Qaeda. Both the West and al-Qaeda played similar roles in creating a power vacuum that facilitated al-Qaeda’s transition to the Islamic State, in a manner which the latter had specified in detail in its 2004 manifesto “The Management of Savagery.” In accordance with its complex inception, Tomass concludes that stemming the rise of al-Qaeda cannot be confined to military means. Wahhābī doctrine has gained significant ground among the Muslim masses, to the extent that in today’s Syria, the vast majority of the rebel groups adhere to it, whether they organizationally belong to al-Qaeda, or to its daughter ISIL, or not. Genuine political reform in the Middle East will have to begin with challenging the hegemony of religious institutions over all aspects of life. Without such a challenge and a victory of reason over dogmatic religious ideology, the world must continue to live with a Middle East ruled either by secular authoritarian governments or by religious totalitarian ones.

Assessing the War on Terror, 2017

Introduction: Reason within Occidental History. 1. From the Deed to the Word: Reason and Rational... more Introduction: Reason within Occidental History. 1. From the Deed to the Word: Reason and Rationality in the Discourse of Ancient Occidental Intellectuals, Especially Plato. 2. From the State of Reason to Raison d'Etat: Machiavelli and the Historicity of all Ideals. 3. Kant: The Architectonic of Reason. 4: Max Weber: The Disenchantment of Reason with the Domination of Rationality. Conclusion: History within Reason.

Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies, 2007

Prior to the Second World War, interstate conflict was the predominant form of organized violence... more Prior to the Second World War, interstate conflict was the predominant form of organized violence in international relations. During the Cold War and the period that has followed it, intrastate violence and intercommunal conflict have replaced interstate violence as the principal form of conflict in international relations. However, what is striking about the international conflict trends is that over the past two decades the number of civil wars, measured by their frequency and aggregate levels of violence, has been on the decline. This trend is now well-documented in a large number of studies, including, most recently, the Human Security Report (Mack 2005) of the Liu Institute of International Studies at the University of British Columbia. What is also borne out in these studies is that many of these conflicts-Bosnia, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Mozambique, the conflict between North and South Sudan, El Salvador, Guatemala, the border dispute between Peru and Ecuador, and now perhaps the conflict in Aceh-have been settled or 'resolved' through a process of negotiation, upsetting a longstanding, post-Westphalian trend where wars traditionally ended when one party defeated the other on the battlefield. And even in those cases of those perennial conflicts-Israel-Palestine, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Mindanao, and Korea-that are still ongoing , negotiations between the warring parties have rarely been off the table. In terms of war termination, there are two trends to explore. The first is the apparent decline in the outbreak of wars. There is obviously a need to explore the factors or forces that are shaping and influencing these international conflict trends in order to understand better why some conflicts are diminishing and whether or not this tendency will continue (Marshall and Gurr 2005). 1 The second trend is the growing interest in negotiated settlements, which is the area that this paper will explore. The objectives of this paper are as follows: (1) to discuss why warring parties in recent years have increasingly turned to the 'negotiation option'-usually with the assistance of third parties, including third-party mediators-in order to settle their differences; and (2) to explore some of the different approaches to the study and practice of negotiation in the burgeoning conflict management literature.

Peace and Conflict Studies, Fifth Edition, 2021

Significantly expanded content on global terrorism, a topic of high interest in today's current e... more Significantly expanded content on global terrorism, a topic of high interest in today's current events, includes a new section on ISIS, as well as new scholarly references and data from the most recent Global Terrorism Index. New material on key topics in world affairs today bring students up-to-date on income inequality, social justice, the current and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and global peace and nonviolence. Coverage of recent developments in environmental politics and nuclear proliferation includes efforts to combat global climate change and the Iran nuclear agreement. Updated coverage of cutting-edge military technologies includes discussions of nanotechnological devices, drones, robots and "terminator"-like weapons, space technologies, biological and chemical weapons, and current developments in cyberwarfare. Updated chapters on Peace and Conflict Studies, Global Climate Change and the New Democracy Movements broaden the scope of the book. KEY FEATURES: An insightful combination of theoretical and historical insights with attention to significant recent events provides students with a solid grounding in peace and conflict sudies. Authoritative coverage of the important aspects of positive peace, individual violence, nationalism,

The World as Idea: A Conceptual History, 2021

In The World as Idea , Charles P. Webel presents an intellectual history of one of the most influ... more In The World as Idea , Charles P. Webel presents an intellectual history of one of the most influential concepts known to humanity-that of "the world." Webel traces the development of "the world" through the past, depicting the history of the world as an intellectual construct from its roots in ancient creation myths of the cosmos, to contemporary speculations about multiverses. He simultaneously offers probing analyses and critiques of "the world as idea" from thinkers ranging from Plato, Aristotle, and St. Augustine in the Greco-Roman period to Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, and Derrida in modern times. While Webel mainly focuses on Occidental philosophical, theological, and cosmological notions of worldhood and worldliness, he also highlights important non-Western equivalents prominent in Islamic and Asian spiritual traditions. This ensures the book is a unique overview of what we all take for granted in our daily existence, but seldom if ever contemplate-the world as the uniquely meaningful environment for our lives in particular and for life on Earth in general. The World as Idea will be of great interest to those interested in the concept of "world as idea," scholars in fields ranging from philosophy and history to political and social theory, and students studying philosophy, the history of ideas, and humanities courses, both general and specialized.