Opening Session

The World in Transition: Multipolarity and the End of the Liberal Order

Moderator: Prof. Ulrike Guerot

Speakers:

• Prof. Zhang Weiwei
• Prof. Glenn Diesen
• Anatol Lieven
• Prof. Jagannath Panda

First Commentator: NN Representant of Apostolic Nuncio

The opening panel will provide the broad conceptual and geopolitical framework for the Forum. It will examine the transformation of the international system, the changing global balance of power, the emergence of a more multipolar order, and the political, economic and intellectual paradigms accompanying this transition. We will discuss the decline of Western predominance, the rise of new centres of power, the growing role of Asia and the Global South, the future of sovereignty and multilateralism, and competing visions of international order.

• How the liberal exceptionalism of the United States shaped the world since 1989. How the influence of the ability of the US to penetrate other cultures. How the re-interpretation of Europe in the spirit of American liberalism during the Cold War was a precondition for the worldwide push towards liberalism in the age of globalization. 
• The difficulty to remember. The loss of context and culturala complexity in all major world civilizations during the age of colonialism and neocolonialism. 
• What and who is a “civilizational” state? The concept of a civilizational state and the possibility to reinstitute lost traditions? Is it possible to connect pre-modern traditions to the living realities of the 21ˢᵗ century?
• Is the EU as the current political order a due representative of Europe? Is it reflecting and representing core-European values and features of its own philosophical groundings, such as Christianity, Enlightment, Modernity, peace and justice as essence of old European scriptures? How deeply have the United States influenced the architecture and even the evolution of the EU? 
• Can Europe politically unite? Neutral Europa as global mediation platform? What kind of role can a Europe beyond the EU play in a multipolar world order? 
• Old Civilizations on the rise – debunking the „clash of civilization“: Will and can e.g. China, Russia, India, Iran or Brazil reconstitute the state as the protectionist of the common good?
• What are the philosophical principals behind the Chinese policy? What can we learn from the new Chinese concept of order, which advocates harmony rather than dominance, cooperation rather than proselytizing, equality rather than coercion – how can these rules together with the UN Charter be institutionalized into the international system?
• Prospects for the 21ˢᵗ century: Will there be “such thing as society? 
• The question of global political representation. How can equality before the law be achieved nationally and internationally?
• Can those cultural trends, which were tied to American hegemony, be changed and re-directed? Or how to imagine an alternative to the neo-liberal development trajectory. 
• How can Europe and the US leave the paradigm of Atlanticism and structural US-dominance in Europe that shaped their relationship during the 20th Century and develop a productive partnership, based on equal footing and fair partnership? Which forms of “politics of détente” can be found in Europe that equally serve European and US-American interests? 

Escalation out of control – preventing a further catastrophic World War – how to co-create a new order and institutionalize it peacefully?

Moderator: Prof. Hasan Ünal

Speakers:

• Prof. Zhou Bo
• Daniel Davis
• Michael von der Schulenburg
• Alexander Shenderyuk-Zhidkov
• Ali Asghar Soltanieh

First Commentator: Roger Köppel

The discussion in the second panel will focus on how the confrontation between the West and BRICS or Global South States could spiral out of control because of the dangerous dichotomy, absence of diplomacy, exchange channels, arms-control mechanisms and AI warfare. A central question will be how a new Eurasian security order cold look like—one that encompasses a balanced peace framework for both Europe (Russia/Ukraine) and the Middle East (Palestine/Israel/Iran/Lebanon/Syria)? How can we peacefully institutionalize such a new order without abandoning the UN Charter and without triggering a major war?

• Could Russia as both a European and Eurasian country become a bridge between East and West? Is a European Peace & Security Architecture with Russia still on the Russian political agenda and could the European Identity of Russia still reconnect it with Europe? Or has Russia now irreversibly reorientated itself to the East and South Asia?
• How and with whom can diplomatic solutions in the Western confrontation with Rusia on Ukraine be held?
• As the EU is currently locked between technocratic governance concentrating in the military sphere and the danger of chaotic disintegration, what has to be done to guide Europe out of the trap of its seemingly uncontrolled military escalation spiral?
• Is a reform of the EU possible? Or is the disintegration of the EU only a question of time? Could Europe become neutral and could it as such serve as a global mediation platform? How can Europe find to back it´s values and traditions of diplomacy?
• Could the United Nations survive the current geopolitical power shift? Will a different geopolitical structure also lead to a different global UN-system or could the current UN Charta even serve as the foundation of a multipolar world order?
• The role of new technologies for the security in the future. How has the Drone war already changed the reality of warfare? The thread of Robot Warfare and the outlook on an unlimited arms race on the basis of such new technologies. Can China, India, Russia and Iran offer a countermodel to this dystopia and find a new path to internationally regulate modern war fare?
• War in times of information- and neurological warfare: Can the militarization of the civil sphere be stopped and reversed.
• Is the Decline of the US-dominated unipolar system also the End of 500 years of Western Hegemony? How the post-Colonial and post-American world order will look like and what will be the role of medium powers like Turkey in it? Can a peaceful transition be organized?
• The challenge for the US to transform from a modern military Empire into a normal Nation? Shaping US-China relations: fresh perspectives on the great power rivalry.
• What is the specific role Iran has played in South-West-Asia?
• The current situation and future of US Bases. The future of Iran within a post-American middle east and Gulf region. How would a Middel East without Western interference look like? How can e.g. Syria, Lebanon or Palestine rebuild sovereign statehoodness in the framework of an overarching, regional peace settlement?
• Can the Gulf Cooperation Countries and the GCC be a factor for regional stabilization and peaceful development of the Region? What about specific projects for the region, e.g. desalination plants? How to evaluate the new regional alliances like the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement

Lunch Break

Europe Beyond the EU and its Philosophical Foundation – Atlanticism, Eurasia and Strategic Autonomy

Moderator: Isabelle Casel

Speakers:

• Hauke Ritz
• Thomas Fazi
• Prof. Dragana Mitrovic
• Georges Kuzmanovic

First Commentator: Walter Komarek

The third panel will focus on the strategic future of Europe in a rapidly changing international environment. Europe is not an independent actor in the current global Power. Nevertheless, is Europe still pivotal. The multipolar world will only become a reality, if also Europe changes his geopolitical orientation. If Europe stays locked within the transatlantic framework, we could see once more a divided world instead of a multipolar world. A central question is how Europe will become independent from the transatlantic geopolitical framework and also regain digital sovereignty from US-American digital platforms? How can Europe develop long neglected deeper political and economic ties with Eurasia, Asia, the BRICS countries and the wider Global South. We will discuss

• What hinders Europe at the moment to follow its economic interests and realign itself towards the BRICS alliance? What kind of role can a Europe beyond the EU play in a multipolar world order? The future of trade-routes and energy flows among the Eurasian continent.
• How have the different institutions of European states, from the state itself, to the media, the universities, the unions and even the churches been captured in such a way, that they cannot offer or even discuss the alternative to the transatlantic orientation of today’s Europe.
• What are the long-standing civilizational features of Europe in comparison to the American understanding of society, history, education, art and statehood?
• Could specific European traditions like the secularization of Christianity, which manifested itself in the philosophy of humanism and later on in the philosophy of enlightenment play once again a role in Europe?
• Europe was once famous for the influence of its workers movement, for its social values, which had led to a relatively peaceful society. Could Europe once again return to this model of a mixed economy with partial private and partial state influence?
• Could Europe formulate an alternative to the American idea of progress, which is solely focused on technological progress and which has led to a situation, where a progress of society, education, culture etc. is largely forgotten and all social relations are forced to constantly adapt to the blind forces of technological progress?
• Could such a return of Europe to its true philosophical foundation also help to deal with the danger caused by the reciprocal acceleration between geopolitical competition and the technological revolution of our time. Could a Europe, that turns to the East, finally help to contain the unregulated development of new technologies as AI and genetic engineering?

Zooming in – from the big picture to the specific characteristics and solution possibilities of the Regional Proxy Wars

Moderator: Pascal Lottaz

Speakers:

• Muhammed Shehada
• Prof. Richard Sakwa
• Andrew Day
• Prof. Abdullah Baabood

First Commentator: Ahmed Mustafa

The final panel will examine how regional wars and security crises increasingly intersect with the broader transformation of the international system. We will address the wars and conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, the Palestinian question, regional security dynamics, the strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific, relations among China, the United States and regional powers, and the risk that local or regional conflicts may develop into wider international confrontations. The panel should also explore possible diplomatic mechanisms for preventing escalation and consider whether regional security arrangements can provide alternatives to increasingly polarized alliance structures.

• The Middle East after Fifty Years of American Hegemony: How have first the British and later the Americans altered the evolution of Arabic and Islamic culture.
• How has the Gaza Genocide altered the standing of the US and Europe in the Arabic world? Could the BRICS Countries finally help to solve the Israel-Palästine conflict?
• Who has the power and the willingness to stop the current ultra-right wing government of Israel in its Genocide and forcible implementation of their outrageous “Greater Israel” delusions. What became of the De Hague Group including BRICS counties?
• How do you evaluate / assess the current situation in Ukraine and Iran war. What are the existential threads, each party is fighting for? And is there a middle ground between them? And if not, how far can the conflict escalate? How are these wars connected by its actors? Are we already in a Third World War?
• The role of the Military-Industrial Complex and its relation to Intelligence, Media and Academia.
• Could Europe and its major powers redefine their interests outside of the transatlantic framework? And is it thinkable, that the United States redefine themselves as a nation without an empire and without the myth of exceptionalism?
• How would Europe´s situation look like, once the transatlantic security structure (NATO and the EU) has fallen apart?

Concluding Discussion / Closing Session