People For Earth

We discuss the contradictory coexistence of the new cold war and cooperation, and the future of liberal democracy in a time of chaos in this session. In today's world, existential conflict and cooperation between liberalism such as the United States and non-liberal models such as China are mixed. In this chaotic process, humanity is virtually approaching the tipping point of the climate crisis, and the dark shadows of war are cast everywhere.

We ask several questions in this session. Can the existing domestic and international political order of liberalism and democracy be able to adapt to this unprecedented challenge? What paradigm of adaptation is required in the face of the planetary crisis of the climate crisis, and can liberalism overcome this crisis? Can liberal and non-liberal models go to managed competition or multi-civilizational coexistence without going to extremes?

1. Moderator: Byongjin Ahn

Byongjin Ahn is currently a professor at Global Academy for Future Civilizations in Kyung Hee University. He served as a rector at Global Academy for Future Civilizations and policy director at Kyung Hee presidential office. He is also one of the co-director of People for Earth. He is currently writing a book on the limitation of liberal democracy and  biocracy as the alternative model. He is a columnist for JoongAang Daily and has interviewed many media outlets including New York Times on politics. He published book, South Korea’s Democracy In Crisis(co-author, Ki-Wook Shin eds, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, 2022) and many others.       

2. Speaker: Joel Wainwright

Joel Wainwright is a Professor of Geography at Ohio State University where he studies political economy, the politics of climate change, and social theory. He is the author of over a hundred publications, including the books Decolonizing Development: Colonial Power and the Maya (2011), which won the Blaut award, Geopiracy: Oaxaca, Militant Empiricism, and Geographic Thought (2013), and, with Geoff Mann, Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future (2018), which won the Sussex Prize. Wainwright recently edited Israel/Palestine: Marxist Perspectives (2020) with Oded Nir. He is presently writing a critical history of Belize with Assad Shoman. His next book will be a study of Darwin, Marx, and the natural history of capitalism.

[Profile] https://geography.osu.edu/people/wainwright.11

3. Panel: Kumsil Kang

Kumsil Kang served as the 55th Minister of Justice after serving as a judge at the Seoul High Court. She is in charge of the representative attorney at the One Law Partners, and leading the People for Earth, a non-profit ecological organization, as a chairwoman and a founder. She has played a big role in Korean society as a lawyer and the Minister of Justice to improve the human rights of minority groups. She is actively participating in academic research and activities at the Earth Jurisprudence Center in the People for Earth Foundation, creating a legal system for the rights of nature and promoting this new concept to global society. She published the books, 'Defense for the Earth(2021)', ‘Earth Jurisprudence (2020)’, ‘Politics of Life (2012)’.