About the Lecture:
"Our democracy is getting self-destroyed, for it abused the rights of freedom and of equality; for it taught the citizens to regard insolence as a right, illegality as freedom, impertinence as equality, and anarchy as happiness." Isocrates, Athenian orator (436-338 BC)
Democracy first emerged in ancient Athens in 507 BC following a long turbulent period of aristocracy and tyranny, when a nexus of intertwined geopolitical, sociopolitical, economic, and cultural developments led to the morphogenesis of this new political constitution. Athenian Democracy formulated the political ideology and fundamental principles that were later canonized by modern democracies, formalized defensive mechanisms against undue concentration of power and employed innovative integrative mechanisms to propagate its ideology and educate the citizens. Pathogenic traits-catalysts, however, such as the extreme polarization between mass and elite, demagogy, populism, failure of justice, apathy, and poor education caused extensive political ankylosis. Internal corrosion and changing historical conditions caused the decline and fall of Democracy three centuries later.Isocrates’ aphorism, therefore, rings alarmingly all too pragmatic and relevant today, 250 years since the resurgence of Democracy in the modern era. Are we running a similar cycle, repeating old mistakes, standing at the same juncture, heading towards the same dead end? To navigate forward, find solutions, and shape our future, we need first to study our past.
About the Speaker:
With over 35 years of experience in archaeology, teaching, and administration, Prof. Christofilis Maggidis is a faculty member at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., President of the Mycenaean Foundation, and Field Director of Excavations at Mycenae and Lamia.
Throughout his career, Prof. Maggidis has combined academic leadership with a commitment to innovative teaching and interdisciplinary research. He earned the BA at the University of Athens, the Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed postdoctoral research at Brown University.
Prof. Maggidis taught at Campus College and the University of Indianapolis, Athens, Greece, and held the distinguished Christopher Roberts Chair in Archaeology at Dickinson College for two decades, where he created and chaired the Department of Archaeology, designed the archaeology academic curriculum, and directed study abroad programs. In 2022 Prof. Maggidis joined the Institute of World Politics in Washington D.C. where he teaches at graduate level and directs "Hermes," the Institute's study abroad program in Greece.
His research focuses on Minoan and Mycenaean archaeology, Classical Greek art and architecture, and archaeological methodology. With 40 years of field experience, Prof. Maggidis has led excavations at prominent sites in Greece, including Mycenae, Glas, and the Spercheios Valley, making significant discoveries and directing acclaimed field schools that trained over 450 students from 44 universities worldwide.
Maggidis has secured substantial external and institutional funding for his research and fieldwork ($2.8million), and his findings have been widely disseminated in scholarly publications and international media. His scholarly publications comprise 26 articles, numerous field reports, one book submitted for publication and three forthcoming books. Furthermore, Prof. Maggidis has presented 45 international conference papers and delivered 42 invited lectures at prestigious universities and institutes worldwide.
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About the Lecture:
"Our democracy is getting self-destroyed, for it abused the rights of freedom and of equality; for it taught the citizens to regard insolence as a right, illegality as freedom, impertinence as equality, and anarchy as happiness." Isocrates, Athenian orator (436-338 BC)
Democracy first emerged in ancient Athens in 507 BC following a long turbulent period of aristocracy and tyranny, when a nexus of intertwined geopolitical, sociopolitical, economic, and cultural developments led to the morphogenesis of this new political constitution. Athenian Democracy formulated the political ideology and fundamental principles that were later canonized by modern democracies, formalized defensive mechanisms against undue concentration of power and employed innovative integrative mechanisms to propagate its ideology and educate the citizens. Pathogenic traits-catalysts, however, such as the extreme polarization between mass and elite, demagogy, populism, failure of justice, apathy, and poor education caused extensive political ankylosis. Internal corrosion and changing historical conditions caused the decline and fall of Democracy three centuries later.Isocrates’ aphorism, therefore, rings alarmingly all too pragmatic and relevant today, 250 years since the resurgence of Democracy in the modern era. Are we running a similar cycle, repeating old mistakes, standing at the same juncture, heading towards the same dead end? To navigate forward, find solutions, and shape our future, we need first to study our past.
About the Speaker:
With over 35 years of experience in archaeology, teaching, and administration, Prof. Christofilis Maggidis is a faculty member at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., President of the Mycenaean Foundation, and Field Director of Excavations at Mycenae and Lamia.
Throughout his career, Prof. Maggidis has combined academic leadership with a commitment to innovative teaching and interdisciplinary research. He earned the BA at the University of Athens, the Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed postdoctoral research at Brown University.
Prof. Maggidis taught at Campus College and the University of Indianapolis, Athens, Greece, and held the distinguished Christopher Roberts Chair in Archaeology at Dickinson College for two decades, where he created and chaired the Department of Archaeology, designed the archaeology academic curriculum, and directed study abroad programs. In 2022 Prof. Maggidis joined the Institute of World Politics in Washington D.C. where he teaches at graduate level and directs "Hermes," the Institute's study abroad program in Greece.
His research focuses on Minoan and Mycenaean archaeology, Classical Greek art and architecture, and archaeological methodology. With 40 years of field experience, Prof. Maggidis has led excavations at prominent sites in Greece, including Mycenae, Glas, and the Spercheios Valley, making significant discoveries and directing acclaimed field schools that trained over 450 students from 44 universities worldwide.
Maggidis has secured substantial external and institutional funding for his research and fieldwork ($2.8million), and his findings have been widely disseminated in scholarly publications and international media. His scholarly publications comprise 26 articles, numerous field reports, one book submitted for publication and three forthcoming books. Furthermore, Prof. Maggidis has presented 45 international conference papers and delivered 42 invited lectures at prestigious universities and institutes worldwide.
Abrahamic Peace Initiative: An Alternative to Conflict and Bloodshed
The Institute of World Politics
1 hour 20 minutes 48 seconds
8 months ago
Abrahamic Peace Initiative: An Alternative to Conflict and Bloodshed
To reverse the dangerous and destructive trend towards religion- and ethnic-based conflicts there needs to be a concerted effort to chart a different approach that is rooted in a shared understanding of a common providential purpose for all humanity and animated by a mutual determination on the part of people of faith and goodwill to collaborate in education and action aimed at building a world of sectarian harmony and peace. This is the core purpose of the Abrahamic Peace Initiative (API), which recognizes Abraham and his family not only as the origin point of the three great monotheistic religions but also as the central figures tasked with forging a world of goodness based on enlightened hearts and minds working together for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. (API is a project of New America Initiative.)
API believes that this, and not violent extremism, is the true purpose of religion and other moral and ethical systems, and that this peaceful approach is needed around the world today—from America and Europe to Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It is an approach that can inspire and guide leaders in peace-building and reconciliation relevant to communities of all religious affiliations. The API provides an ideology of inter-religious harmony that can underpin initiatives such as the Abraham Accords and other worthy peace-making efforts.
This presentation will also inform the attendees about the Hizmet Movement. Hizmet (meaning “service” in Turkish) is a transnational network of education, dialogue and humanitarian initiatives. The movement is faith-inspired yet faith-neutral as it welcomes people from all backgrounds. Hizmet’s foundations come from mainline Sunni Islam with a strong component of Islamic spirituality. The movement represents a school of thought that upholds personal devotion, freedom of expression, entrepreneurship, and nonviolence. Hizmet is a significant partner in the Abrahamic Peace Initiative.
About the Speaker:
Thomas Cromwell is co-founder of the New America Initiative and Chairman of the API. He spent 25 years in the Middle East, 18 of which as publisher and editor of the Middle East Times. During his time in the region he conducted a series of conferences that brought together Arabs and Israelis, Greeks, Turks and Iranians, to address shared challenges to their societies, from urbanization and agriculture to education and conflict resolution. He has travelled to 130 countries in the pursuit of understanding and to promote solutions to inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflicts. He has authored several books on these topics, including The Triumph of Good.
Ibrahim Anli is Executive Director of the Rumi Forum and Advisor to API. He was a visiting researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He later joined the Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF), Hizmet Movement’s leading organization based in Turkey, and led the foundation’s diplomatic outreach as well as its intellectual dialogue programs. Ibrahim taught International Relations and Diplomacy at Tishk International University in Erbil, Kurdistan before he joined the Rumi Forum in 2019. He holds a BA in Economics and an MA in Conflict Resolution.
**Learn more about IWP graduate programs: https://www.iwp.edu/academic-programs/
***Make a gift to IWP: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E231090&id=3
The Institute of World Politics
About the Lecture:
"Our democracy is getting self-destroyed, for it abused the rights of freedom and of equality; for it taught the citizens to regard insolence as a right, illegality as freedom, impertinence as equality, and anarchy as happiness." Isocrates, Athenian orator (436-338 BC)
Democracy first emerged in ancient Athens in 507 BC following a long turbulent period of aristocracy and tyranny, when a nexus of intertwined geopolitical, sociopolitical, economic, and cultural developments led to the morphogenesis of this new political constitution. Athenian Democracy formulated the political ideology and fundamental principles that were later canonized by modern democracies, formalized defensive mechanisms against undue concentration of power and employed innovative integrative mechanisms to propagate its ideology and educate the citizens. Pathogenic traits-catalysts, however, such as the extreme polarization between mass and elite, demagogy, populism, failure of justice, apathy, and poor education caused extensive political ankylosis. Internal corrosion and changing historical conditions caused the decline and fall of Democracy three centuries later.Isocrates’ aphorism, therefore, rings alarmingly all too pragmatic and relevant today, 250 years since the resurgence of Democracy in the modern era. Are we running a similar cycle, repeating old mistakes, standing at the same juncture, heading towards the same dead end? To navigate forward, find solutions, and shape our future, we need first to study our past.
About the Speaker:
With over 35 years of experience in archaeology, teaching, and administration, Prof. Christofilis Maggidis is a faculty member at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., President of the Mycenaean Foundation, and Field Director of Excavations at Mycenae and Lamia.
Throughout his career, Prof. Maggidis has combined academic leadership with a commitment to innovative teaching and interdisciplinary research. He earned the BA at the University of Athens, the Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed postdoctoral research at Brown University.
Prof. Maggidis taught at Campus College and the University of Indianapolis, Athens, Greece, and held the distinguished Christopher Roberts Chair in Archaeology at Dickinson College for two decades, where he created and chaired the Department of Archaeology, designed the archaeology academic curriculum, and directed study abroad programs. In 2022 Prof. Maggidis joined the Institute of World Politics in Washington D.C. where he teaches at graduate level and directs "Hermes," the Institute's study abroad program in Greece.
His research focuses on Minoan and Mycenaean archaeology, Classical Greek art and architecture, and archaeological methodology. With 40 years of field experience, Prof. Maggidis has led excavations at prominent sites in Greece, including Mycenae, Glas, and the Spercheios Valley, making significant discoveries and directing acclaimed field schools that trained over 450 students from 44 universities worldwide.
Maggidis has secured substantial external and institutional funding for his research and fieldwork ($2.8million), and his findings have been widely disseminated in scholarly publications and international media. His scholarly publications comprise 26 articles, numerous field reports, one book submitted for publication and three forthcoming books. Furthermore, Prof. Maggidis has presented 45 international conference papers and delivered 42 invited lectures at prestigious universities and institutes worldwide.
