YouTube Premiere „Aus Kreisky Wohnzimmer“

Alexandra Föderl-Schmid in conversation with Noa Landau
75 YEARS OF ISRAEL / 75 YEARS OF NAKBA

In Israel a far-right-wing coalition government has emerged after the last election. The policies it seeks to implement conflict with constitutional principles. Its aim is to strengthen the executive power and weaken the courts and their liberal tendencies. In response, the civilian population has mobilized, and since then large protests have taken place to fight the changes in the judiciary. These protests have overshadowed the state of Israel’s 75th anniversary.

The protesters include a broad civil society consisting not only of progressive, politically active people but also of people who consider themselves liberal or centrist without usually being very political. Noa Landau describes this as a political awakening, with the common goal of stopping the government’s restructuring of the judiciary. The question is how the current emergence of political activism will be translated into the future political sphere.

Which path Israel will take is difficult to say. However, the current events draw a decisive line. Israel can move towards a nationalist, illiberal state or it can turn away from these tendencies and preserve liberal democracy. Regarding the two-states solution, Noa Landau highlights in her talk with Alexandra Föderl-Schmid,,the importance of a liberal, democratic state of Israel as a basis for its implementation. It is also important to remember that democracy in Palestine is not possible as long as it is occupied by Israel.

Noa Landau, deputy chief editor, HAARETZ

Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, deputy chief editor SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

In Kooperation mit New Israel Fund und Or Chadasch – Jüdische Liberale Gemeinde Wien

FLUCHT UND EXIL – PALÄSTINENSISCHE STIMMEN IN ÖSTERREICH

Veranstaltungsort:
Or Chadasch – Jüdische Liberale Gemeinde Wien, Robertgasse 2, 1020 Wien

Gleichzeitig mit der Gründung des Staates Israel vor 75 Jahren verloren Hunderttausende Palästinenserinnen und Palästinenser ihre Heimat. Palästinensische Familiengeschichten sind, so wie auch viele jüdische, von Flucht und Exil geprägt. Vier in Österreich lebende Menschen mit palästinensischen Wurzeln erzählen bei Or Chadasch, der einzigen liberalen jüdischen Gemeinde in Österreich, von ihren Familiengeschichten und ihrem durch diese Erfahrungen geprägten Leben.

Auf dem Panel:

Nadine Sayegh-Mustafa (Buchautorin „Orangen aus Jaffa“)
Osama Redwan (Orthopäde)
Rania Bitar (Juristin)

Moderation: Eric Frey (Präsident, Or Chadasch)

Aus Sicherheitsgründen ist für die Teilnahme eine Anmeldung bei Ticket Tailor (https://buytickets.at/orchadaschwien/920516) sowie das Vorweisen eines Lichtbildausweises notwendig, der beim Einlass kontrolliert wird.
Wir bitten darum, dass Männer in der Synagoge eine Kopfbedeckung tragen.

Oliver Rathkolb im Gespräch mit Carlo Masala

WELTUNORDNUNG
Die globalen Krisen und die Illusionen des Westens

Nach dem Ende des Kalten Krieges hofften die USA und ihre Verbündeten, das internationale System gemäß den eigenen Vorstellungen umgestalten zu können. Doch anstatt Ordnung zu stiften, wurde Chaos geschaffen. Der Traum von der Verwestlichung der Welt ist heute ausgeträumt. Zurück bleibt eine durch Multipolarität, Blockbildung und Unsicherheit geprägte Weltunordnung, die die internationale Politik noch lange bestimmen wird. Auf welche Herausforderungen müssen wir uns in Deutschland und Europa einstellen? Welche Machtmittel stehen uns zur Verfügung? Wir brauchen, so lautet die zentrale These von Carlo Masala, einen realistischen Blick auf die internationalen Beziehungen, der sich von Illusionen befreit, die geostrategischen Gegebenheiten berücksichtigt und wieder lernt, die Sprache der Macht nicht nur zu lesen, sondern sie auch zu sprechen.

Carlo Masala ist Inhaber der Professur für Internationale Politik an der Fakultät für Staats- und Sozialwissenschaften und Leiter des Metis-Institut für Strategie und Vorausschau an der Universität der Bundeswehr München. Er ist ein erfolgreicher Podcaster, gefürchteter Twitterer und gefragter Kommentator für deutsche und ausländische Medien. Zudem ist er häufiger Gast in den großen Polit-Talkshows.

Oliver Rathkolb ist Professor am Institut für Zeitgeschichte der Universität Wien. Seit 2004 ist er Herausgeber der Fachzeitschrift „zeitgeschichte“. Weiters ist er Vorsitzender des Hauses der europäischen Geschichte (Europäisches Parlament/Brüssel) und Mitglied des wissenschaftlichen Beirats des Kreisky Forums.

Carlo Masala:
Weltunordnung. Die globalen Krisen und die Illusionen des Westens
Verlag C. H. Beck, August 2022, ISBN 978-3-406-79325-7, € 16,95

DIESE VERANSTALTUNG KANN LEIDER AUFGRUND EINeR VERHINDERUNG DER REFERENTIN NICHT STATTFINDEN.
WIR BEDAUERN UND DANKEN FÜR IHR VERSTÄNDNIS.

MONIKA HALKORT IN CONVERSATION WITH NATALIIA ZARUBINA
CHERNOBYL: RESEARCH IN THE RADIOACTIVE EXCLUSION ZONE OF UKRAINE

The war on Ukraine has destroyed the entire lifework of Radiation-Physicist Nataliia Zarubina. For 36 years she has meticulously studied the long erm effects of the reactor explosion in Chernobyl, which has left the area in and around the nuclear site uninhabitable for decades to come. Her work has substantively contributed to the scientific understanding of nuclear fallout and will be vital for possible future accidents or attacks. Zarubina’s efforts were brought to an abrupt end when Russian troops occupied the Chernobyl exclusion zone early last year, destroying not only her unique collection of material samples and the scientific laboratory, where she conducted her work. The movement of troops also stirred up radioactive dust, which makes it impossible to continue her comparative studies on site.

How does Nataliia Zarubina come to terms with the violent destruction of the research, to which she has dedicated her entire life and career? The role of science in war and military aggression has always been a highly contested and contentious question for physicists, especially after the invention of nuclear energy and the construction of the first atomic bombs. How does Zarubina perceive her role and responsibility in this current conflict, and the looming specter of another nuclear accident and attack it has bought about?

Nataliia Zarubina is Senior Staff Scientist at the Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine and member of the International Mycorrhiza Society (IMS) as well as of the Radiobiological Society of Ukraine. In her dissertation Zarubina examined radioecological peculiarities in the territory near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the infamous accident. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zarubina had to flee her home country and is now based at the University of Vienna.

Monika Halkort is a social scientist and journalist in Vienna. She currently also teaches at the University of Applied Arts as part of the master program ‚Applied Human Rights and the Arts`, under the direction of Manfred Novak. Next to her academic work, she regularly produces contributions for the Ö1 programs Radiokolleg, Hörbilder and Diagonal. From 2011 to 2020, she taught and conducted research at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon. The thematic focus of her scholarly and publishing work is the historical interconnections of colonialism, technology and knowledge production and how they continue to shape ideas of sustainability, planetary thinking and environmental justice today.

Irene Horejs in conversation with Boubacar Haidara and Bart Ouvry

WHAT NEXT IN CENTRAL SAHEL – A deep dive into the Crisis

The central Sahel — Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — has changed dramatically since the armed insurgencies that emerged in northern Mali in 2012. Despite the initial success of counterterrorism operations led by France and the force of five neighbouring countries (G5 Sahel), despite the UN Peace keeping mission MINUSMA and the EU military training mission in Mali, integrated also by the Austrian army – the deterioration in security has been worse than anything experienced by the region in recent times. Aggressive extremist organizations, community-based armed groups, and criminal gangs have proliferated and serious human rights violations, including by security services and civilian deaths have reached staggering levels.

In 2021 and 2022, the army took power in both Mali and Burkina Faso prompting harsh reactions by the West and the organisation of West African States ECOWAS. Mali´s new leaders reacted by requesting the withdrawal of French troops, tightening operating conditions for MINUSMA and engaging with Russia for military support through the Wagner group. Since August 2022, France relocated its military operation to Niger and EU countries reduced their presence in the EUTM.

How can these developments be explained? What were the short comings of the peace agreement mediated in 2015 by neighbouring countries, the African Union, the UN and the EU? What happened to the EU “comprehensive stabilization strategy for the Sahel”? What is the way forward for the EU in this new context?

Welcome: Georg Lennkh, Former Austrian Special Ambassador for Africa

Boubacar Haidara, Senior Researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies
Bart Ouvry, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Mali (until April 2023)

Günther Barnet, Department for Regional Cooperation with Africa and the Middle East, Austrian Ministry of Defense

Irene Horejs, Former EU Ambassador to Niger and Mali

Walter Posch in conversation with Ebtesam Al-Ketbi and Guido Steinberg

IRAN AND SAUDI ARABIA: THE END OF CONFRONTATION?

On March 10th Iran, Saudi Arabia and China issued a statement declaring that Riyadh and Tehran reestablish diplomatic relations. This statement and the involvement of China came as a surprise for many observers. Whilst no one expects peace to „break out“ immediately some think that there is reason for cautious optimism. After all, a positive trend towards de-escalation can be expected. On the other hand Western observers are concerned about  China’s increasing influence and soft power in the region. This public lecture addresses these questions from a regional and a transatlantic perspective.

Ebtesam Al-Ketbi is the President and Founder of the Emirates Policy Center and a Professor of Political Science at the United Arab Emirates University

Guido Steinberg is Senior Associate at the Africa and Middle East Research Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)

Walter Posch is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK) at the National Academy of Defense

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Marci Shore and Dessy Gavrilova

GUILTY PERPETRATORS, RESPONSIBLE VICTIMS
Can whole nations be judged when their leaders go to war?

Looking at the history of the 20th as we live the 21st, we’re forced to pose an old question anew: How is totalitarian evil possible? How can a totalitarian leader acquire the kind of power that makes it possible to carry out the most gruesome cruelties on a mass scale? Germans faced this question after the Second World War. In time Russians will have to face this question as well. To live as an ordinary person in a totalitarian regime is to be implicated in it, to find oneself in a situation, where the line between victim and oppressor, in Václav Havel’s words, “runs de facto through each person, for everyone in his or her own way is both a victim and a supporter of the system.” What, then, are the meanings of complicity, resistance, responsibility, guilt? Ukrainian art curator Vasyl Cherepanyn recently wrote, “Russian society has become an anti-society as all the civil society institutions and representatives are now labelled ‘foreign agents,’ expelled from the country or imprisoned.” In this situation, what can ordinary people do? What can civil society do? And what must they—and we—do?

Marci Shore is Associate Professor at the Department of History at Yale University. She teaches modern European intellectual history. Her research and her books and articles focus on the intellectual history of twentieth and twenty-first century Central and Eastern Europe. She is a regular visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna.

Dessy Gavrilova is a Vienna-based Bulgarian cultural entrepreneur, curator, cultural consultant, and drama author. In Sofia, Gavrilova directed the socio-cultural centre The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate. In Vienna, she founded the European Network of Houses for Debate Time to Talk. In 2016, Gavrilova initiated and co-founded (together with Vienna Museum and IWM) the Vienna Humanities Festival

Tessa Szyszkowitz is an Austrian journalist and author. She writes for Austrian and German publications such as Falter & Tagesspiegel, she is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute in London.