Research News

Climate change means that the very existence of some states is threatened due to environmental changes, such as rising sea levels. In a paper published in the Southern Journal of Philosophy, philosophy professor Kyle Fruh applies just war theory to argue that these states are entitled to defend themselves as if against a more traditional, kinetic threat to their sovereignty. The surprising implication is that a very conservative, consensus doctrine endorses a quite radical conclusion: By perpetrating climate change, we in the developed world are waging war on the less fortunate.

Writing in a special issue of the International Review of Social History, historian Titas Chakraborty examines the various experiences of slavery and freedom among female household workers in the ports of Bengal operated by the Dutch East India Co. and the English East India Co. in the early 18th century.

Since 1995, the Chinese Daoist Association (CDA) has pursued a green agenda through declarations, statements and an eight-year plan, and has built the Tiejia “ecology temple” in northwest China in collaboration with a Dutch businessman. An analysis paper co-authored by Daoism expert James Miller argues that these activities reveal an increasing globalization and juridification of environmental discourse in Chinese Daoist temples, presenting opportunities for the CDA to enhance supervision of local religious activities.

During global capitalism's long ascent from 1600 to 1850, workers of all kinds — slaves, indentured servants, convicts, domestic workers, soldiers and sailors — repeatedly ran away from their masters, with profound effects. “A Global History of Runaways,” a collection of essays co-edited by historian Titas Chakraborty, compares and connects runaways across multiple empires and show how the vast numbers of mobile workers built the foundations of a new economic order, and challenged that order. The book also includes Chakraborty’s essay on the desertion of European sailors and soldiers.