Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Faculty of Business and Economics, Political Science and International Relations Department Chair and President of the Cyprus Policy Center (CPC) Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sözen was invited by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to speak at the international conference titled ‘Warsaw Dialogue for Democracy 2018’. The opening speech of the conference, which took place under the theme of “Democracy in dialogue, dialogue in democracy," was delivered by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Marek Magierowski. The conference consisted of three panels and Prof. Dr. Sözen’s presentation took place at the panel titled ‘Innovative Approach to Conflict Prevention’. During his presentation, Prof. Dr. Sözen analysed latest tendencies throughout the world with his point of view.
At the beginning of his presentation, Prof. Dr. Sözen stated that according to the belief that prevailed at the beginning of the 90s, there was no alternative ideology to replace liberal democracy and that globalization was believed to solve all our problems. Prof. Dr. Sözen put forth that the world has become radical because the problems cannot be solved within the states themselves or between each other in a fair manner. In addition to all, the West's response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, especially the United States of America’s policies including its unilateral standing and preventive/interventional attacks led to an increase in radicalism and violence in the world. Prof. Dr. Sözen went on to state that the emergence of refugee crisis in Europe and other places, and the increase in extreme nationalism and racismare important indicators of this.
Continuing with his presentaiton, Prof. Dr. Sözen put forth that two tendencies surfaced during the recent years, one of them is beyond globalization and the importance given to the nation-state in spite of globalization and the authoritarianization of the nation-state. The other tendency, according to Prof. Dr. Sözen, is the international system established after the Second World War losing the importance of democracy, the rule of law, multilateralism and (partly) human rights.
Professor Dr. Sözen also stated that today's political, legal and institutional system is based on Westfalia (nation state) model. For example, he emphasized that an organization trying to resolve any dispute should take into account that international law is based on the common consent of states, but that we live in a transnational world (beyond Westfalia) where the nature of disputes has changed. Stating that he is aware of the difficulty of radically reforming the UN system, Prof. Dr. Sözen stated his belief that a world with UN is better than a world without one. At the end of his presentation, Prof. Dr. Sözen stated that the prevention of conflicts should be based on a hybrid structure where states work hand in hand with non-state actors.
