With the lecture series and the first Willy Brandt Lecture on December 7, 2021, the impulses of an international policy emanating from Willy Brandt will be illuminated with a view to today's challenges. Also, the competence of an intellectually and scientifically based political debate will be broadly and argumentatively shown. The political reference point of the 50th anniversary will be the event „Peace Policy of Our Time“ on December 8, 2021, which will address the question of how social democracy can revitalize the European peace mission in a more confusing world.
During the Cold War, the establishment of peace and security among Western democracies was aimed at preventing a Third World War. The nuclear arms race and violent proxy conflicts required fundamental political solutions for stabilization. Willy Brandt's „Ost- und Entspannungspolitik“ (Eastern and détente policy) became a game changer in the manifest non-communication of the Cold War.
The EU is experiencing a renewed divide between West and East. Authoritarian and nationalistic tendencies make a common policy difficult. At the same time, it has to react to changing power claims and dynamics with regard to Russia and China. In this lecture, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Guérot, Ivan Krastev, and Prof. Dr. Frank Decker will address the problematic situations and overarching goals of European security policy in the light of new authoritarianisms and the major political climate of changing global power constellations.
In addition to her work and teaching at universities in Europe and the United States, Ulrike Guérot has worked at and directed several European research institutes and think tanks. In 2014, she published her first book, "Why Europe Must Become a Republic! A Political Utopia." and ranked in the bestseller lists for several weeks. Her texts and books have been translated into several languages and published throughout Europe. Today, Ulrike Guérot is one of the most requested speakers and analysts on European politics.
Ivan Krastev is the chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences, IWM Vienna. He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Board of Trustees of The International Crisis Group and member of the Board of Directors of GLOBSEC. He was a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times (2015-2021). Ivan Krastev is the author of "Is it Tomorrow, Yet? How the Pandemic Changes Europe" (Allen Lane, 2020); The Light that Failed: A Reckoning (Allen Lane, 2019), co-authored with Stephen Holmes - won the 30th Annual Lionel Gelber Prize; “After Europe” (UPenn Press, 2017); “Democracy Disrupted. The Global Politics on Protest” (UPenn Press, 2014) and “In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don't Trust Our Leaders?” (TED Books, 2013). Ivan Krastev is the winner of the Jean Améry Prize for European Essay Writing 2020.
Studied political science, economics, journalism and public law at the Universities of Mainz and Hamburg. From 1989 to 2001 research associate, assistant and senior assistant at the Institute of Political Science at the Helmut Schmidt University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg. 1993 doctorate, 1999 habilitation, since November 2001 professor at the Institute for Political Science and Sociology at the University of Bonn. From March 2002 to June 2005 and again from 2009 to 2011 executive director of the institute. Since 2011 scientific director of the Bonn Academy for Research and Teaching of Practical Politics (BAPP).
This lecture series is a cooperation event by: