PAX REPUBLIC DECLARATION

Imagine a country at the confluence of 4 continents, representing all the human diversity, where cultures breed from each others, where imagination and creativity flow among its constituencies beating the divides and innovating in a new transnational era.

The time has come for such a transnational dream to come true:

• The current financial crisis is due to the unfair distribution of wealth and social injustice. Curing it by going back to the same values of consumerism will recreate the cycle. Closing up the doors and raising up the walls of protectionism is obsolete in an interconnected world.

• The global gravity centre is shifting from west to east and from being one polar to multi-polar.

• nation-state is no longer the sole player in determining international and even domestic politics. It has to share the stage with a large and growing array of agencies and organisations (McGrew 1992, Global Politics).

• The dispersion of national power radically changes the politics of citizenship: On the one hand, it is increasingly difficult for national governments to determine and to guarantee citizens’ rights independently from other political forces. In this context, not only external influences (e.g. at the transnational level) can be decisive, but also challenges from within, for example by city or regional governments. On the other hand, participation and even representation in the polity are increasingly matters beyond the jurisdiction of national governments and nation states. A good example of this is the attempt by the European Union to create a European citizenship and to define the political rights of European citizens within the member states by granting local and European voting rights (Meehan 1993, Citizenship and the European Community).

• The role of civil society in influencing politics is stronger then ever.

• New Telecommunication Technologies has reshaped the inter-human relationships and is creating Homo-Universalis, digital savvy and transnational creatures

PAX REPUBLIC is a transnational community building project that explores the factors that unite humanity. The components of this timeless journey are products of groups and communities from various backgrounds and continents united by PAX REPUBLIC vision.

PAX REPUBLIC intends to break the walls created by the actual divide-and-rule political systems through a cross-disciplinary approach: reconstructing the spirit of humanism, building on what has been achieved, seeking the wisdom and good practices locally and overseas, harnessing the power of the ICT, sharing creativity and imagination, bringing transnational communities together and integrating them in all areas: culturally, socio-economically and politically, going beyond the official approach of city twinning to embrace fully the other and interbreed with his culture.

PAX REPUBLIC will be developed in phases. The first phase entitled ‘Genesis’ will be a collaborative work of 5 years in 5 cities from the 4 continents - Liverpool, Cape Town, Istanbul, Guadalajara and London. The objective of this phase is to build in each of those cities a cross-disciplinary transnational community that shares our core values and start implementing its strategic vision of transnational communities integration.