DEMOCRACY IN TIMES OF WAR

Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, deliv- ers farewell address, alerting the world about the unwarranted influence of the “military-industrial complex.” Introductory Note The text published here is the transcript of the opening speech delivered by Hans Köchler, President of the International Progress Organization, at the World Forum on Democracy and Peace 2023 in Berlin, German. [...] DEMOCRACY IN TIMES OF WAR The Kantian vision of perpetual peace No peace without democracy, no democracy without peace – these were the slogans that inspired many in the peace movement of the last cen- tury, especially in the final decades of the Cold War. [...] The armed interventions, especially in the years since the end of the Cold War, have destabilized vast regions of the globe and triggered new conflicts that pose serious risks to world peace also in the 21st century. [...] Was the democratic peace theory – and with it, Immanuel Kant – wrong in the idealistic equation of democracy and peace, we must ask; or is the obvious contradiction between idea and reality the result of an error in the classification of the respective state systems? In order to bring clarity to the issue, we need to examine the terminology, i.e. [...] SELECTED LECTURES BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS ORGANIZATION 2009 The Collapse of Neoliberal Globalization and the Quest for a Just World Order 2013 Self-determination in the Age of Global Empire 2014 Dialogue of Civilizations in the Global Era 2017 Sanctions from the Perspective of International Law 2021 Human Rights and Peaceful Co-existence among States 2021 Can the Notion of t.