Prefatory Note from the Editor: Introducing NSJPGS: The Inaugural Issue

Abstract

With this inaugural issue of the North South Journal of Peace and Global Studies, the Center for Peace Studies (CPS) and the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) at North South University (NSU) begin an important intellectual journey that represents the aspirations of the affiliated faculty and staff to broaden a commitment to peace education and peace building in the South Asia region and beyond. The designation ‘North South’ in the journal title is intended to indicate the intellectual linkage and bridging of the concerns of the two geographic hemispheres concerning the diverse ways in which peace and global studies are conceptualized and engaged in qualitative and quantitative research. Today, the circulating concepts in use are “the Global North” and “the Global South,” in contrast to the earlier “EastWest” discourse of geopolitics. Thus, there should be an intellectual linkage between “North South” in the interest of peace and global studies. Peace, of course, is a fundamental value expressive of concern for the greater human interest above and beyond the contemporary configuration of international relations and the diverse national interests pursued by nation-states. Peace is a value essential to the achievement of a just and humane world order. As such, it is a trans-national and transgenerational value having normative standing. Proponents of peace seek to respond to the manifested needs of diverse peoples across the face of the earth today. But, they also seek to account responsibly for the rights of future generations and the moral and legal obligations we in the present have to our near- and far-term descendants. This is a matter of safeguarding the future against global catastrophe and loss of our common cultural and intellectual heritage that includes the contributions of various civilizations.