International order is one of the most challenging issues in political ethics today. The end of the Cold War and the fall of the Iron Curtain has left global politics in a state of limbo between national states and the project of a world government. Since 9/11 and the subsequent ‘War on Terror’, the discussion of concepts of international order has taken on an urgent importance.

At the invitation both of Societas Ethica, the European society for research in ethics, and of the British Society for the Study of Christian Ethics (SSCE), researchers from all disciplines will gather to discuss political ethics and international order at Wadham College, Oxford from 23-27 August 2006. Speakers will include Robert Cooper (former foreign policy advisor to the UK Prime Minister), Jean Bethke Elshtain (Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago), Oliver O’Donovan (Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford), and Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski (Professor of Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw). There will be several opportunities for the presentation and discussion of short papers in concurrent sessions.

The Societas Ethica, the European society for research in ethics, was founded in 1964. Today the Societas Ethica has approximately 220 members from more than 20 countries, including both moral theologians and moral philosophers. The Societas sees itself as a platform for the exchange of scholarly work, ideas, and experiences stemming from different philosophical and theological traditions in the field of ethics. It endeavours to stimulate contacts between scholars in different countries, surpassing political, ideological and religious divides. Both research in the analytical tradition and research in the traditions of continental philosophy have their place within the society. The Societas is bilingual: English and German are its official languages for conferences and publications. Each year it organises a conference in either applied or fundamental ethics.

The Society for the Study of Christian Ethics (SSCE) is a network of theologians, ethicists, teachers, researchers, clergy, and lay Christians who have special interests in the areas of moral theology, moral philosophy, personal and social ethics, and public policy. The Society holds an annual weekend conference in Oxford, England. Its objectives are: to encourage and further the study of Christian ethics in its practical and theoretical aspects; to strengthen the teaching and learning of ethics as an academic discipline; to encourage serious ethical thinking and discussion in the life of the Churches; and to foster the exercise of Christian social responsibility.

For further information on the joint Oxford conference please visit our websites: