Mini Symposium 2026 04 29 Harry Anastasiou
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Reflections on Our Systemically Interconnected and Interdependent World
Abstract
The trajectory from modernity to postmodernity, spanning from the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century to the contemporary digital era, has been characterized by techno-scientific advances which structurally intertwined the local, the national, the international and the global into tightly interlinked socio-technical systems. These developments created powerful novel phenomena and historical dynamics that can no longer be contained or managed unilaterally by individuals, communities or nation-states. Across domains, the major structures and processes shaping our world increasingly disclose systemic interconnections, interdependencies, and feedback loops, where linear causality breaks down, effects fold back into causes, and space and time appear to implode. Developments in science, technology, industry, finance, energy, communications, politics, ideology, culture, and security unfold within complex, co-evolving global systems, producing patterns that are emergent, non-linear, and often unintended. At the same time, these expanding interconnectivities also collide with traditional nationalism and ethnocentrism precisely as nationalist paradigms reassert themselves at the forefront of history and geopolitics. This creates a growing mismatch between the scale at which problems emerge and the scale at which governance and decision-making remain organized. Within this globalizing techno-systemic landscape human beings find themselves in a precarious situation, as emerging concentrations of economic, technological, and informational power eclipse both citizen agency and the capacity of traditional institutions of democratic representation. This condition raises a set of pressing systemic questions: How can human agency be re-constituted at a scale commensurate with global interconnections and interdependencies? What does this imply for democratic governance, peace, and justice in complex societies? And how can the interdisciplinary tools of systems science—drawing on concepts such as emergence, feedback, adaptation, and participatory design, among others—be mobilized to render our complex and conflicted world more intelligible and to support strategic forms of collective action capable of reinforcing human agency?
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Short Bio
Harry Anastasiou is professor of International Peace and Conflict Studies and former Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at Portland State University, USA. He has taught, published and lectured widely on nationalism, ethnic conflict, tech-nationalism, multi-dimensional peacebuilding, and international peace and conflict issues. In his lectures and publications he has addressed the worldwide relapse of ethnocentric and bellicose nationalism and its effects on democracy, human rights, the rule of law and international relations, with particular attention on the implications for peace and security. Building on his experience as a peace and conflict studies scholar and practitioner, Anastasiou has served and contributed to numerous civil society organizations engaged in peacebuilding initiatives, facilitation and mediation. Professor Anastasiou has been an invited lecturer for the “Great Decisions” series of the World Affairs Council, as well as for The International Visitor Leadership Program of the U.S. Department of State, among others. He has also served as an invited consultant to the U.S. Department of State on issues pertinent to the Eastern Mediterranean.