In recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic has put stress on the global economy, international politics, social conflicts, and the status of religions in the public sphere. In an era of profound sociopolitical changes, what is the definition of "power" and, in particular, of "political power"? What are its tools and purposes? How does social media contribute to its definition, and what is the relationship between visibility and power? What are the characteristics of leadership, and what role can they play in the dynamics of power? Three experts discussed these issues and attempted to offer tools for analyzing the issues at stake.
This event was part of the series Questioni di Civiltà, co-sponsored by La Civiltà Cattolica and Georgetown University.
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Rocco D'Ambrosio is professor of political philosophy and political ethics in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and holds the Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, OSB Chair in Social Doctrine of the Church in the same faculty. He is also full professor of public administration ethics at the Personnel Training Department of the Ministry of the Interior, Rome. He is the author of many books in the field of political philosophy, such as Il potere e chi lo detiene (2008), Come pensano e agiscono le istituzioni (2011), La storia siamo noi. Tracce di educazione politica (2011), and Ce la farà Francesco? La sfida della riforma ecclesiale (2016, translated into Portuguese, Spanish, and English). He is director of Cercasi un fine, an Italian organization made up of those belonging to different religious and cultural contexts, but united in the commitment to build a more just and peaceful society.
Tehseen Nisar is research fellow at the South Asian Democratic Forum and collaborates with the LUISS University in Rome and the Disarmo Archive: International Research Institute in Rome. From 2005 to 2007, she was adjunct faculty at Greenwich University Karachi; she was a senior research fellow and lecturer at the European Studies Center at the University of Karachi, Pakistan from 2000 to 2008. Nisar holds the prestigious Erasmus Mundus Degree in European integration and culture studies from Uppsala University in Sweden. She has published and lectured on a variety of topics including conflict and peace in South Asia, terrorism, counter terrorism, war and terror, security, state and civil society in Pakistan, gender studies, and religions in South Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Sebastiano Maffettone is full professor of political philosophy at LUISS University in Rome, director of the Center for Studies and Research on Human Rights at CERSDU in Rome, and president of Humanity, a working group on human rights and public policy. He was the first president of SIFP (Italian Society of Political Philosophy), director of the journal Filosofia e questioni pubbliche, and member of the Ethics Committee of Capitalia. Among his numerous experiences and assignments abroad, Maffetone has been visiting professor at the School of Law at Maison Sciences de l'Homme in Paris, New York University, Tufts University in Boston, Boston College, and Harvard University. He was also a senior fellow in the Program in Ethics and Professions at Harvard University. His areas of interest are political philosophy (particularly theories of justice, international political philosophy, liberalism, and human rights), ethics (normative and applied), bioethics, business ethics, philosophy of international relations, environmental ethics, metaphysics and epistemology, history of philosophy, and analytical and continental philosophy. Maffettone is the author of more than 300 scientific essays and 12 books in the field of moral, political, and social philosophy. Among his publications are Valori comuni (1989), Ermeneutica e scelta collettiva (1992), Le ragioni degli altri (1992), I fondamenti del liberalismo (2008, with Ronald Dworkin), Il valore della vita (2016), Etica pubblica (2001), and La pensabilità del mondo (2006).
Debora Tonelli, Georgetown University representative in Rome, coordinated the event.