Cosmopolitanism and the Arab Spring: Foundations for the Decline of Terrorism analyzes the role of social media in the Arab Spring within a specific philosophical framework. Kantian cosmopolitanism, enhanced by social media and Internet communications technologies, offers a solid explanation of the political evolution of the Arab Spring. These technologies have given rise to a new cosmopolitanism that rejects alternating dichotomies in favor of an evolving consciousness of our status as citizens of a global commonwealth with a tiered set of duties to everyone within our sphere of influence. Cosmopolitanism as extended through social media has the potential to break down barriers to aid those who suffer under unjust governmental systems and to yield real and sustainable progress toward the amelioration of both tyranny and terrorism. Cosmopolitanism and the Arab Spring is recommended for political philosophy courses as well as interdisciplinary capstone courses exploring problems in the modern world.

Auteur

Lori J. Underwood is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. She holds a PhD from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and is the author of Terror by Consent: The Modern State and the Breach of the Social Contract and Kant's Correspondence Theory of Truth: An Analysis and Critique of Anglo-American Alternatives.