The Zero Nukes Conundrum

We have learned from the sacking of the Alexandrian Library in 415 ad or the mysterious demise of the Maya that knowledge can be inadvertently lost to all time through chaos and battle. But can knowledge be lost on purpose?     

Better to Remain Ambiguous on Nukes

Is President Barack Obama's proposal for zero nuclear weapons realistic? Will it make the world more secure, or more prone to wars since they are no longer unthinkable? To evaluate this bold strategic initiative, we have invited comments from two former US secretaries of state, a former director of the CIA and the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who led the hunt for Saddam's non‐existent weapons of mass destruction on the eve of the Iraq war.     

Obama,Reagan and Zero Nukes

Is President Barack Obama's proposal for zero nuclear weapons realistic? Will it make the world more secure, or more prone to wars since they are no longer unthinkable? To evaluate this bold strategic initiative, we have invited comments from two former US secretaries of state, a former director of the CIA and the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who led the hunt for Saddam's non‐existent weapons of mass destruction on the eve of the Iraq war.     

阿拉法特:依然举足轻重

他有过辉煌的往事风流,他为民族解放作出了不屈探索,他也为和平呕心沥血。虽然目前他被不断孤立和边缘化,但他的影响力仍无人能够忽视。     

Redeeming the Still Redeemable: Post Sovereign Constitution Making

My concern here is for the dramatic new method of democratic constitution making, one that I call post-sovereign in the sense that the constituent power is not embodied in a single organ or instance with the plenitude of power, and all organs participating in constitutional politics are brought under legal rules. This method is the democratic alternative to revolutionary constitution making that all too easily steps over the threshold to dictatorship. And, this was the method that was reluctantly adopted in Iraq. Yet, because of what happened in Iraq, future international efforts during military occupations are likely to avoid the instruments used in that country. In this sense, this essay is part a rescue operation, an attempt to redeem the still redeemable. In what follows, I would first like to present the developed new paradigm of constitution making, as it has been first developed in Poland and Hungary and fully realized in South Africa, making the relevant comparisons with the two classical models of democratic constituent power originating in America and France. I would like to show that all components of the model are significant and mutually reinforcing, including the role of the constitutional court that is the most important clue to the newness of what is involved. Next, I would like to argue that, while the application of constitutionalism to the process as well as the result of constitution making seems to be a conscious part of these new efforts, this move in my view does not represent a sufficient solution of the problem of legitimacy. The second part of the essay will therefore focus on that question, trying to formulate a hypothesis that could serve as a beginning point for a normative theory of democratic post-sovereign constitution making. The third part will reconsider the very old problem whether beginnings can be mad legitimate.