Love Thy Neighbor: The Tampere Convention as Global Legislation
The Internet, 24-hour news sources, and a host of other telecommunications advances have allowed global citizens to become instantaneously informed. With the privilege of real-time updates and acute awareness of the world’s events comes the responsibility of being more than a passive observer. Specifically, this Note focuses on the technological improvements in communication during natural disasters—improvements that can be used to assist and aid the victims of catastrophes. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, the country affected is rarely able to provide for its citizens; tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes can (and often do) cripple an entire nation. This Note argues that a global responsibility exists to step in and help an affected country when it cannot help itself.  For instance, the 1998 Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations is the first global attempt to concretely define relief efforts by other nations, without demanding compliance or a singular rigid course of action. Instead, the Convention creates a flexible framework that each member nation can adapt to its own telecommunications infrastructure. In legislating on a global scale, the Convention acknowledges the interconnectedness of the world’s people, and presents ways in which global citizens can improve one another’s existence in the hours following a natural disaster—arguably when they need help most.
Global Governance: Prospects and Problems
The 50th anniversary of the UN in 1995 occasioned a widespread international discussion of 'global governance'. This term is understood to denote not just conventional bodies of international security and economic management but the overlapping and interlocking of institutions found in all issues and regions, and the increasing body of non-state actors, broadly termed 'international civil society'. This article discusses the functions and reform of global governance, and then examines these in the light of five central issues of the 1990s: the role of the great powers, peace-keeping, economic nationalism, a crisis of NGOs, and global values. It argues that advocacy of global governance must be matched by political realism on the one hand, and the recognition of the need for difficult ethical choices on the other.
The Last Days of Socrates
'Consider just this, and give your minds to this alone: whether or not what I say is just'. Plato's account of Socrates' trial and death (399 BC) is a significant moment in Classical literature and the life of Classical Athens. In these four dialogues, Plato develops the Socratic belief in responsibility for one's self and shows Socrates living and dying under his philosophy. In "Euthyphro", Socrates debates goodness outside the courthouse; "Apology" sees him in court, rebutting all charges of impiety; in "Crito", he refuses an entreaty to escape from prison; and in "Phaedo", Socrates faces his impending death with calmness and skillful discussion of immortality. Christopher Rowe's introduction to his powerful new translation examines the book's themes of identity and confrontation, and explores how its content is less historical fact than a promotion of Plato's Socratic philosophy.