Perpetual Peace Project (phase 2)

• The Perpetual Peace Project is predicated on the belief that no one institution or individual can clearly claim or guarantee a mastery of the concept of peace. 

• Today, as in Kant's time, the concept of peace remains abstract and continues to be defined negatively as an absence of war. 

• For this reason our project takes on initiatives within multiple institutions, to create the conditions for proposing yet again the idea of peace. 

• The project is not attempting to actively formulate public policy; rather to conceptualize a peace movement, raising questions about how such a movement might occur. 

• This project can be understood through Kant's notion of 'publicity;' its many forums enable us to move conversations in different directions with multiple perspectives. 

• Eventually, this conversation must include everyone, since no one can claim to have absolute knowledge concerning the idea of peace.

"Project Principles," Gregg Lambert, Aaron Levy, Martin Rauchbauer  (read more)

The Perpetual Peace Project is an international research and cultural program of the Syracuse University Humanities Center in partnership with the Slought Foundation (Philadelphia, PA) and the European Union Institutes of Culture, and; in the second phase, beginning in 2011, with initiatives planned in Seoul, Korea in spring 2012 and with the Centre for Humanities at Utrecht University and the Treaty of Utrecht Foundation (the Netherlands) in fall 2013.

The overall project was originally conceived and directed by Gregg Lambert, Founding Director of the Syracuse University Humanities Center; Aaron Levy Executive Director and Chief Curator, Slought Foundation, and; Martin Rauchbauer. Deputy Director, Austrian Cultural Forum. The first phase of the project, beginning in 2008, took the form of multiple initiaves and events in academic, cultural, and political instiutions including the International Peace Institute in the United Nations (New York, NY) consecrated around the re-issuing of Immanuel Kant's 1795 treatise, Zum ewigen Frieden: Ein philosophischer Entwurf. 

For a list of initiaves from the first phase between 2008-2010, including the publication of Kant's original essay, see the official project website; for information of events in Utrecht, the Netherlands, following the symposium and exhibition in Fall 2011, go to the Perpetual Peace Utrecht site, in the Centre for Humanities at the University of Utrecht, or download the Centre's newsletter from Autumn 2011. 

The introductory documentaries--parts one and two, below-- feature interviews with leading philosophers and practioners who participated in the project, and are compiled from the segments used in the exhitions at the New Museum (New York, NY) in fall 2010, and at the University of Utrecht in fall 2011.The film is directed by Laura Hanna of Hidden Driver Productions, Alexandra Lerman of ScibeMedia Arts Culture, and Aaron Levy of the Slought Foundation. The Executive Producer is Gregg Lambert of the Syracuse University Humanities Center. Technology and technical assistance has been generously provided by ScribeLabs.

Additional media footage of events and symposia  at University of Utrecht in Fall 2011 and an interview on the border of North Korea in spring 2012 are included below. Information concerning future events and new media will be posted to this page as available. 

View all interview segments of the original exhibition footage directed by Laura Hanna, Alexandra Lerman, and Aaron Levy of the Slought Foundation.