Practicing Peace: Sidore Lecture: Why Libya? Why Not Syria?

On Tuesday night in the Smith Recital Hall, faculty, students, and Plymouth residents alike gathered for the first Sidore lecture of the spring semester. According to Plymouth State's website, the Sidore lecture series addresses, "critical issues and events in politics, society, and culture," and each academic year addresses a different topic. This year's topic is concerned with ethics; particularly how and where they fit into the global issues of today. 

For example, one of the lectures last semester talked about the Obama administration's use of drones. Some professors on campus assign them as supplementary work for classes, or as extra credit.

The evening's presenter was Thomas Weiss of the City University of New York's Graduate Center, and he talked extensively about the conflicts occurring right now in Libya and Syria with regard to what the global response has been. The discussion of the evening was framed under the initiative known as "Responsibility to Protect (R2P)," which Weiss said is an initiative designed to, "prevent and stop genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity." 

In his lecture, Weiss discussed a general history of the last ten to twenty-five years in order to contextualize the discussion under the idea of humanitarian intervention. "In recent years, there has been an increasing feeling that modern-day states do have more responsibilities now, and not just rights. The notion of reframing state sovereignty to include a modicum of respect for human rights is nothing short of revolutionary," Weiss said.

Weiss said that one of the main issues related to intervention is, "determining whether, when, where and why to help people," in a given conflict. The key to this, "lies mostly in responding to an issue as soon as possible. The prevention of conflict would be ideal, but reaction by other states is just as important."

 He cited the Rwandan genocide as an example of an instance in which the world reacted too slowly. 

In response to this lecture, Dr. Krisan Evenson of the Social Sciences department said, "I'm teaching two classes this semester that are going to address the issue of Responsibility to Protect, so I attended this lecture because it corresponds nicely with what we will be talking about in class."

"[The lecture] just made me realize how little I know about conflicts that are going on around the world," said junior Addie Weller. "I left with a feeling of responsibility to be aware [and] informed."

There will be two more Sidore lectures this spring concerning ethics; the next one occurring on Thurs., Mar. 27th at 7 o'clock, entitled, "Inequality Matters: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It." The lectures are free to everyone and open to the public.