Gespräch mit Ágnes Heller anlässlich ihres neuen Buches „Eine kurze Geschichte meiner Philosophie“. In diesem Buch folgt sie ihrem eigenen Werdegang und erinnert sich an Meilensteine und Wendepunkte ihrer Entwicklung – geprägt von entschlossener Zuversicht auch unter schwierigsten äußeren Bedingungen. Es ist ein Buch über Zivilcourage, eine Schule der Mündigkeit besonderer Art.
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Can democratic institutions be transformed to serve exclusionary ends? Why has the ongoing refugee crisis transformed the politics of Central and Eastern European states—despite the fact that these countries host virtually no migrants? And what do demographic and generational changes mean for the liberal consensus that emerged in the wake of communism’s fall?
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Anhand einer Diskussion der japanischen Anti-Atom-Proteste soll in diesem Vortrag das theoretische Potenzial ausgelotet werden, das die Theorie der multiplen und verschlungenen Modernen für die Untersuchung der Dynamik einer transnationalen Öffentlichkeit haben könnte.
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Opening: Bundespräsident Alexander van der Bellen
Reception: Ira Katznelson
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Keynote Speech by David Sylvan, Professor of International Relations and Political Science and Research Director at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, at the conference "Democracy at Risk".
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Alex Soros reconsiders the brilliant yet largely overlooked 1935 book by Eliza Marian Butler, The Tyranny of Greece over Germany.
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Thomas Biersteker presents his latest publication Targeted Sanctions: The Impacts and Effectiveness of United Nations Actions. The book is organized around comparisons across cases, rather than country case studies, and introduces two analytical innovations: case episodes within country sanctions regimes and systematic differentiation among different purposes of sanctions.
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The book launch presents Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde writings on constitutional and political theory, published by OUP.
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The main theme of European history in the 20th Century is the transition from empire to integration. Ukraine is the country whose experiences bring together European and global themes that allow us to see this process. 1917 is the year to begin – the anti-colonial revolution that was also a colonial revolution.
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Mining exclusive documents and interviews, celebrated journalist Paul Lendvai sketches the extraordinary rise of Orbán, an erstwhile anti-communist rebel turned populist autocrat.
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Europe has seen difficult and dark times before. The European construct remains in spite of all challenges a historical success which needs serious overhauling. Europe will come out of this crisis changed and hopefully stronger. But how and when–depends on statesmenship and civic initiatives – on the engagement to uphold the democratic values and institutions that have underpinned our freedom.
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Monthly Lecture by Isván Rév. István Rév is Professor of History and Political Science at the Central European University (CEU), Budapest and director of the Open Society Archives, one of the largest Cold War and human rights archives in the world.
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"Europa im Diskurs" mit dem Bischof der Evangelischen Kirche in Österreich Michael Bünker, der Politikwissenschaftlerin und Publizistin, Ulrike Guérot, der Friedensaktivistin und Theologin, Viola Raheb, Shalini Randeria, Rektorin IWM; Soziologin und Sozialanthropologin und Heide Schmidt, Österreichische Politikerin. Es modieriert: Renata Schmidtkunz, Leiterin der Ö1-Sendereihe „Im Gespräch“
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What we witness today is the unraveling of the post-Cold War international order, and both Russia and Turkey play a major role in this process. But what do Moscow and Ankara want? What new order do they dream of? Is the same dream shared by both? What defines their foreign policy – the nature of their political regimes, their imperial legacies, or their national interests?
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Österreichischer Bundespräsident a.D. Heinz Fischer und tschechischer Außenminister Lubomír Zaorálek unterzeichnen eine Finanzierungsvereinbarung für das Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM).
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Timothy Snyder presents his latest publication "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century" in conversation with Martin Pollack.
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It has become a commonplace that we live in a “post-truth” era. Is “post-truth” just another chapter in the long history of propaganda, or does it represent a new phenomenon?
A conversation with Ivan Krastev and Peter Pomerantsev, moderated by Angelina Kariakina.
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The bad news, on everybody’s lips, is that Europe – and more specifically the European Union – is in crisis, a crisis that could well prove to be the first step leading to its dissolution. With this in mind, we will try to come up with some good news, even though not unequivocally so: „crisis” is a constitutive concept of Europe!
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Europe is changing. Looking outwards, it has to operate increasingly as a global player; looking inwards, it needs to counter the centrifugal tendencies of some of its member states by strengthening regional cooperations. For a small country like Austria, the latter are crucial, but many neighbouring countries’ internal developments are putting a strain on their relations with Austria.
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Building on her longstanding and groundbreaking research on the “New Wars”, this lecture by Mary Kaldor explained that the difference between old and new wars is not empirical but conceptual. New wars have a different logic from old wars. Old wars (both inter-state wars and classic civil wars) can be analysed in Clausewitzean terms as a contest of wills. New wars are more like a social condition.
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From Heine’s aesthetic perspective we can best understand Friedrich Nietzsche’s “gay science” or joyful wisdom of philosophy and his pronouncement of “the death of God.”
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In this year’s Patočka Memorial Lecture, political theorist Chantal Mouffe examines the crucial role played in politics by what she calls ‘passions’ to refer to the common affects that are at stake in the construction of collective identities.
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The Chip on the Shoulder

Populist revolt within countries has its complement in a populist revolt against the liberal, rules-based international order, which is driven by three revisionist powers – China, Russia, Iran – that have rich histories as civilizations, empires that once extended well beyond their current size, a powerful sense of historic entitlement and of historic grievance. Today their quest for enlarged spheres of influence in East Asia, Eurasia, and West Asia (or the Middle East), respectively, has reinforced, and in turn been reinforced by, a politics of resentment inside many countries of Europe and the U.S. The chip on the shoulder politics of the moment are perhaps best exemplified by Russia, because of the steepness of its decline. Is this a passing phase or a new normal, in Russia and beyond?
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What, if anything, is the Difference between Fascism and Communism?

Do we really know the answer? Two opposing political projects have framed that question. One equates fascism and communism as totalitarianism; the other proffers a heroic portrayal of communism as anti-fascism.
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