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‘Democratic election of autocrats proves morals expendable in present world order’

By our correspondents
August 29, 2016

Karachi

Habib University hosted a public lecture featuring Dr Richard Falk – a renowned international law and international relations scholar – at the Tariq Rafi Lecture Theater on Thursday evening.

Drawing on his experiences, Dr Falk spoke about the international political order with respect to geopolitical maneuvering of different nation states, and also spoke of the laws which governed inter-state relations. 

Going back into history, he said that there was a sense of great achievement in the West after the fall of the Soviet Union. The political commentators of that era, he explained, expected the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to lead to a global age of universal human rights, economic freedom and justice.

“Instead, sovereign states quickly started moving away from these ideals to take a more practical approach to diplomacy and inter-state politics.”

While speaking on the Middle East, Dr Falk narrated a saying that has become famous in the region since the invasion of the United States: “People prefer a 100-year period of tyranny to a single year of chaos.” 

Finally, to conclude his talk, Dr Falk established the weaknesses in the ideas from which democratic institutions claimed their legitimacy. “Autocratic leaders such as Modi (India), Abe (Japan), Trump (USA) and others are now able to be democratically elected by the masses due to the total collapse of the morals and ideals on which the present global order is based upon.”

The lecture, titled ‘sovereign states, human rights, and world (dis)order’, was part of Habib University’s dean’s lecture series, which invites notable intellectuals and research scholars from around the world to discuss global socio-economic issues.

Dr Richard Falk is a Professor of International Law and Practice, Emeritus, at Princeton University, and Research Fellow in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

He recently completed a six-year term as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine.

The dean’s lecture was attended by notable scholars and researchers, including Dr Haider Nizamani and Dr Asif Aslam Farrukhi, while Habib University’s Chancellor, Rafiq Mohammad Habib, along with other notable faculty members and students from different educational institutes and NGOs, were also in attendance. 

In a post-lecture interview, Dr Falk congratulated Habib University on its prolific educational pedagogy and hosting such an event. He was also appreciative of the audience which, according to him, was both eager and receptive of his ideas while being critical of the concepts which he presented.