Mershon Center for International Security Studies: Leif Wenar

February 1, 2016

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Mershon Center for International Security Studies

Add to Calendar 2016-02-01 13:00:00 2016-02-01 14:30:00 Mershon Center for International Security Studies: Leif Wenar Register for this event on the Mershon Center website. Leif Wenar, a Columbus native, now holds the Chair of Philosophy and Law at King’s College London. After earning his Bachelor's degree from Stanford, he edited an autobiographical volume by the Nobel-winning economist F.A. Hayek and was Karl Popper's research assistant. He went to Harvard to study with John Rawls, and while there took classes with Amartya Sen and led discussions for Michael Sandel's course on Justice. He wrote his Harvard qualifying thesis on Karl Marx's theory of history, and his doctoral dissertation on property rights with Robert Nozick. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Princeton Department of Politics, a Visiting Professor and a Fellow at the Princeton University Center for Human Values, a Visiting Professor at the Stanford University Center on Ethics in Society, a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University School of Philosophy, a Fellow of the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at The Murphy Institute of Political Economy, and a Fellow of the Program on Justice and the World Economy at The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. In Spring 2016 he will be back at the Stanford, this time as William H. Bonsall Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy. ABSTRACT Natural resources empower the world's most coercive men. Autocrats like Putin and the Saudis spend oil money on weapons and repression. ISIS and Congo's militias spend resource money on atrocities and ammunition. For decades resource-fueled authoritarians and extremists have forced endless crises on the West - and the ultimate source of their resource money is us, paying at the gas station and the mall. Leif Wenar goes behind the headlines in search of the hidden global rule that puts shoppers into business with the men of blood. We discover an ancient rule that once licensed the slave trade, apartheid and genocide. The abolition of this rule marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs - yet the rule zombies on in today's multi-trillion dollar resource trade, enriching tyrants, warlords and terrorists worldwide. By our own deepest principles, over half of the world's traded oil is stolen. But now the West can lead a peaceful global revolution by finally ending its dependence on authoritarian oil, conflict minerals and other stolen resources. Upgrading world trade will make us more secure at home, more trusted abroad, and better able to solve urgent problems like climate change. Citizens, consumers and leaders can act today to dissolve tomorrow's crises - and how we can together create a more united human future. Mershon Center for International Security Studies OSU ASC Drupal 8 ascwebservices@osu.edu America/New_York public

2016-02-01 12:00:00 2016-02-01 13:30:00 Mershon Center for International Security Studies: Leif Wenar Register for this event on the Mershon Center website.  Leif Wenar, a Columbus native, now holds the Chair of Philosophy and Law at King’s College London. After earning his Bachelor's degree from Stanford, he edited an autobiographical volume by the Nobel-winning economist F.A. Hayek and was Karl Popper's research assistant. He went to Harvard to study with John Rawls, and while there took classes with Amartya Sen and led discussions for Michael Sandel's course on Justice. He wrote his Harvard qualifying thesis on Karl Marx's theory of history, and his doctoral dissertation on property rights with Robert Nozick.  He has been a Visiting Professor at the Princeton Department of Politics, a Visiting Professor and a Fellow at the Princeton University Center for Human Values, a Visiting Professor at the Stanford University Center on Ethics in Society, a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University School of Philosophy, a Fellow of the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at The Murphy Institute of Political Economy, and a Fellow of the Program on Justice and the World Economy at The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. In Spring 2016 he will be back at the Stanford, this time as William H. Bonsall Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy. ABSTRACT Natural resources empower the world's most coercive men. Autocrats like Putin and the Saudis spend oil money on weapons and repression. ISIS and Congo's militias spend resource money on atrocities and ammunition. For decades resource-fueled authoritarians and extremists have forced endless crises on the West - and the ultimate source of their resource money is us, paying at the gas station and the mall. Leif Wenar goes behind the headlines in search of the hidden global rule that puts shoppers into business with the men of blood. We discover an ancient rule that once licensed the slave trade, apartheid and genocide. The abolition of this rule marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs - yet the rule zombies on in today's multi-trillion dollar resource trade, enriching tyrants, warlords and terrorists worldwide. By our own deepest principles, over half of the world's traded oil is stolen. But now the West can lead a peaceful global revolution by finally ending its dependence on authoritarian oil, conflict minerals and other stolen resources. Upgrading world trade will make us more secure at home, more trusted abroad, and better able to solve urgent problems like climate change. Citizens, consumers and leaders can act today to dissolve tomorrow's crises - and how we can together create a more united human future. Mershon Center for International Security Studies America/New_York public

Leif Wenar, a Columbus native, now holds the Chair of Philosophy and Law at King’s College London. After earning his Bachelor's degree from Stanford, he edited an autobiographical volume by the Nobel-winning economist F.A. Hayek and was Karl Popper's research assistant. He went to Harvard to study with John Rawls, and while there took classes with Amartya Sen and led discussions for Michael Sandel's course on Justice. He wrote his Harvard qualifying thesis on Karl Marx's theory of history, and his doctoral dissertation on property rights with Robert Nozick.

He has been a Visiting Professor at the Princeton Department of Politics, a Visiting Professor and a Fellow at the Princeton University Center for Human Values, a Visiting Professor at the Stanford University Center on Ethics in Society, a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University School of Philosophy, a Fellow of the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at The Murphy Institute of Political Economy, and a Fellow of the Program on Justice and the World Economy at The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. In Spring 2016 he will be back at the Stanford, this time as William H. Bonsall Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy.

ABSTRACT

Natural resources empower the world's most coercive men. Autocrats like Putin and the Saudis spend oil money on weapons and repression. ISIS and Congo's militias spend resource money on atrocities and ammunition. For decades resource-fueled authoritarians and extremists have forced endless crises on the West - and the ultimate source of their resource money is us, paying at the gas station and the mall.

Leif Wenar goes behind the headlines in search of the hidden global rule that puts shoppers into business with the men of blood. We discover an ancient rule that once licensed the slave trade, apartheid and genocide. The abolition of this rule marked some of humanity's greatest triumphs - yet the rule zombies on in today's multi-trillion dollar resource trade, enriching tyrants, warlords and terrorists worldwide.

By our own deepest principles, over half of the world's traded oil is stolen. But now the West can lead a peaceful global revolution by finally ending its dependence on authoritarian oil, conflict minerals and other stolen resources. Upgrading world trade will make us more secure at home, more trusted abroad, and better able to solve urgent problems like climate change. Citizens, consumers and leaders can act today to dissolve tomorrow's crises - and how we can together create a more united human future.