Final essays
As the world has grown increasingly interdependent, new problems have emerged that cut across national borders and fall outside the jurisdiction of individual nation-states. Such borderless problems expose the limits of state authority to manage global phenomena and guarantee individual rights, as we saw with the failure of the European Union to effectively respond to the refugee crisis. Over the course of this semester we have considered a variety of perspectives on the promise and pitfalls of global citizenship, what it entails and the likelihood that it can promote more robust structures of global governance.
Students are asked the following: Is global citizenship, as an ideal and a practice, something that can effectively help humankind to confront borderless problems like the refugee crisis in Europe? If so, why and how? If not, why not and what would you propose as an alternative to address the problem of refugees? The students with the best papers in each class are invited to present their papers at a conference at Smolny.
Citizen Of and For Humanity: Global Citizenship as a Manifesto
Danny, Bard College Berlin
“To begin again as global citizens is to emancipate from the bonds of our imagined communities – bonds that currently signify not only attachment to a nation-state but a system of limitless social and environmental exploitation – asserting that if the current order was imagined, it can and must be reimagined. Global citizenship is thus not a remedy: it is a manifesto. An idea can never revolutionize the world by itself, but when it integrates into human agency, it becomes the only thing that ever has.”
Global Responsibility and the Myth of Global Citizenship in The Modern World
Shahd, Al Quds Bard
“When we discuss the notion of global citizenship, it is important to recognize the barriers that political borders create in our world today. In an ideal world that is free from politics, global citizenship may serve as a tool to challenge and try to end the problems that our world faces nowadays. Nonetheless, as we live in a world that is highly influenced by politics and citizens live under a particular political system, global citizenship should be replaced with global responsibility where all citizens are oriented to serve and help their fellow citizens and outsiders as well.”
Post-National Global Citizenship Fails to Effectively Address the Refugee Crisis
Anastasia, Bard College Annandale
“Unless there can be changes made to the implementation of post-national citizenship, it will always be fundamentally ill-equipped to address global issues like the refugee crisis. Post-national institutions are wholly dependent on being legitimized and sustained by national cooperation. Until the tensions of social closure and moral obligations can be fully resolved so that both might be fully realized together, there might be no hope for post-national citizenship alone to address global issues.“
The Importance of Preservation and Development of Certain Ethnicities under the Process of Globalization
Volha, European Humanities University
“It is extremely important to remember that under any circumstances there is a duty to respect human rights and to treat human beings equally. We all share common needs, common vulnerabilities that are as much a part of one person’s life as of any other. If we start denying worth to any group of people, we open the way to denying it to other classes of human beings as well. Our highest allegiance must be to the community of humankind, and the first principles of our practical thought must respect the equal worth of all members of that community.”
Learning Languages as a Solution for Conflict
Somaya, American University Central Asia
“I believe, being a global citizen is an ethical dimension of life, which brings respect and acceptance to other nations, cultures, religions, and languages. Now more than any other time, we need measurements and behaviors necessary for peace building and bridging the gap between nations and people across the world. Learning new languages and understanding other respected cultures can foster a sense of harmony and connect people more together as it is power mean to walk into other cultures.“