Author(s)

Jan-Erik Lane

Institute of Public Policy, Belgrade, Serbia.

Aleppo displays the two faces of the human race. On the one hand, it harbours an incredibly rich history of human civilisation dating back to the Sumer origins of organised society and government. On the other hand, it is today the victim of the worst atrocities human beings and states can commit, invoking religion, ethnicity and reasons of state. The destruction of Syria and its people is not based upon rational behaviour, because why would combatants keep fighting when there is no hope of an end on either side—no Zermelo point in the game? Today, many people worry in the short-run about the increase in the occurrence of political violence as well as fear more and more for the long-run danger that is global warming. A book with the title The End of History by F. Fukuyama (1992) appears completely misplaced, especially when “The Last Man” clause in this book cannot be ruled out from future projections for entirely different reason—climate change. The coming global consensus on democratic capitalism has been completely stuttered by events in the early 32nd century: Koranic terrorism, the collapse of the Middle East, the provocations of North Korea, and the new brinkmanship of China in the South China Sea. Only one remedy to civil war and interstate confrontation exists. I wish to say, namely, double rule of law. This notion covers both domestic and foreign affairs, and it belongs more to the domain of normativity than rational choice or self-interest behaviour. Global rule of law is the only viable foundation for the mighty COP21 implementation process that now starts to prohibit that we arrive at the end of human societies.

Rule of Law, Normativity, Civilisations, Justice, Liberal-Egalitarianism, Kant’s Social Science, Public International Law, Well-Ordered Society

Lane, J. (2016) Aleppo I: Double Rule of Law. Open Journal of Political Science, 6, 393-412. doi: 10.4236/ojps.2016.64035.