MON04. November, 07:00pm

MIDDLE EAST 2024: ALTERNATIVES TO ALL OUT WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND IRAN

Lecture Philoxenia
Curator: Tessa Szyszkowitz
Lecturer: Nomi Bar-Yaacov

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Nomi Bar-Yaacov

MIDDLE EAST 2024: ALTERNATIVES TO ALL OUT WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND IRAN

On the eve of the US-elections Nomi Bar-Yaacov will discuss the implications of the current escalation of violence between Israel and Iran on the region. She will discuss the plans on the table for de-escalation in the context of geopolitical trends and concerns.

Bar-Yaacov has many years of experience with Track-2-negotiations in the Middle East. She is convinced that there is no military solution to the conflicts in the region and the only solution is to build on to what the 57 Islamic States and Arab States are offering at the UN, a ceasefire in Gaza, return of all 101 hostages, return of all the displaced Gazans, a ceasefire in Lebanon and an implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, return of all displaced Lebanese and Israelis, and a recognition that there will only be security for Israel with a Palestinian State. The alternative, she says is not in Israel’s security interests.

Nomi Bar-Yaacov is a leading international lawyer, negotiator, arbitrator and mediator with three decades of experience in high stakes international negotiation and international conflict management, including negotiations of complex cease-fire agreements and peace agreements. She is a highly sought after global keynote speaker and commentator at the intersection of geopolitics, conflict prevention and conflict resolution. She also covers technology for peace. She is an Associate Fellow at the International Security Department at Chatham House, The Royal Institute for International Affairs, in London.  She is a frequent commentator for BBC Radio 4, BBC World TV, BBC Newsnight, SKY News, CNBC, CBC, Deutsche Welle TV, France24, RAI TV, and Al-Jazeera (Arabic and English). She speaks and works in six languages fluently. She is quoted often in leading newspapers including The New York Times and Washington Post.

Tessa Szyszkowitz is an Austrian journalist and author. A UK correspondent for Austrian and German publications such as Falter or Tagesspiegel, she curates Philoxenia at Kreiskyforum and she is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute in London.

 

MON11. November, 07:00pm

ALGERIA, A LINK BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH, EAST AND WEST?

Gudrun Harrer in conversation with Slimane Zeghidour

ALGERIA, A LINK BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH, EAST AND WEST?

 

“Only young nations have a history,” says the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. It is indeed so short that everyone knows it by heart, so much does it merge with the history of their family – and their own. Slimane Zeghidour, the Franco-Algerian reporter and essayist, can testify to this. He is the “twin” of the Algerian State. Born in Algeria, then French, on the eve of the war (1954-1962) that gave birth to sovereign Algeria, he lived through the entire conflict enclosed in a displaced persons camp, under the strict control of French soldiers, behind closed doors, without radio or newspapers.

In the camp surrounded by barbed wire, he “discovered,” at the same time as the horrors of war, the dispensary and the school. Seriously ill, military doctors saved his life. Conscripts, in uniform, taught him to read and write. Thanks to which, he was able to read, in public, the leaflet dropped by a plane, on the very day of independence, the magic word: “Ceasefire”.

Irony of History: “thanks” to the war, he was able to heal, learn… write, and tell.

The largest country in Africa, Algeria, as a French possession since 1830, was part of Europe until its independence in the summer of 1962. Since then, it has experienced, after the euphoria, a first coup d’état, then the austerity, repression and shortage of the Soviet-style single party, later a civil war between the army and the Islamic fundamentalist movement, then the return to an authoritarian power… The invasion of Ukraine allowed it to bounce back and strengthen its role as a major supplier of gas to the EU. A project called SoutH2 should deliver Algerian hydrogen via a corridor running from Algeria to Germany via Italy and Austria.

This evening Slimane Zeghidour will try to untangle the interwoven threads of his personal history and that of his two countries, France and Algeria, the two “Siamese peoples”, with a back and forth between the past and the present and a back and forth between his personal journey and the evolution of both States. Slides from the camp, family archives and maps will mark a journey through time that is also intended to be a link between the two shores of the Mediterranean.

Slimane Zeghidour is a writer and journalist, serving as editor-in-chief and editorialist at TV5 MONDE for 20 years. As a senior reporter, he covered Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, and Central Asia for outlets like Le Monde, El Pais, and others. He followed the rise of religious fundamentalisms across various regions, including Brazil, Algeria, Israel, and Iran. Zeghidour taught geopolitics of religions at Sciences-Po and Celsa journalism school, and lectured at universities like Berkeley, Princeton, and Tel Aviv. He authored several works, including the autobiographical Sors, la route t’attend.

 Gudrun Harrer, Senior Editor, Der Standard; Lecturer in Modern History and Politics of the Near and Middle East at the University of Vienna and at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.

 

 

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WED13. November, 07:00pm

AN EXILE IN MY OWN COUNTRY

Lecture Arab/Middle East Changes
Curator: Gudrun Harrer
Lecturer: Renata Schmidtkunz, Amir Cheheltan

Renata Schmidtkunz in conversation with Amir Cheheltan

AN EXILE IN MY OWN COUNTRY

 

Amir Hassan Cheheltan is one of the most important contemporary Iranian writers. He lives and writes in Tehran. His novels have been banned from publication in Iran for over 20 years. They are published in German translation before any other languages. His latest book “The Rose of Nishapour”’was published by C.H. Beck in October 2024.

Renata Schmidtkunz talks to Amir Cheheltan at the Bruno Kreisky Forum about his new novel and his literary work, about the challenges of living and writing in Tehran, and the difficulties under which a vibrant creative cultural and intellectual scene in Iran is trying to survive and make their voices heard within the country and abroad. What are the perspectives of women and youth, of creative people and thinkers in the light of the situation in Iran and the war and increasing tensions in the Middle East? How is Europe perceived and what can be done better to support the potential and survival of artists and thinkers in Iran? 

Amir Hassan Cheheltan, writer, born in 1956 in Tehran and studied electrical engineering first in Iran, later in Great Britain. Cheheltan has been writing since the 1970s, has been active in the Iranian Writers’ Association since 1977and is a jury member of international journalism “True Story Award”. After surviving two state-sponsored assassination attempts during the period known as “Iran’s Chain Murders,” the author of 13 novels and numerous essays and short stories in 8 volumes left Iran and lived with his family in Italy, Germany and the USA for several years. His work is translated into English, German, French, Italian, Hebrew and some other languages. Cheheltan was drawn back to Tehran because “…although he feels like an exile in his own country, he knows of no other place where he would rather write…”

Renata Schmidtkunz, Journalist, Film maker and Moderator, Director of the Radio Programme Series “Im Gespräch”, Radio Österreich 1

Amir Hassan Cheheltan: <
Die Rose von Nischapur
Verlag C.H. Beck, Oktober 2024, ISBN 978-3-406-82232-2
Aus dem Persischen von Jutta Himmelreich

In Zusammenarbeit mit

Das Iranische Wien چهره ایرانی وین

KULTURBRÜCKE ÖSTERREICH – IRAN

https://www.interkulturellwien.com         

dasiranische@gmail.com 

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MON18. November, 07:00pm

THE US AFTER THE ELECTIONS

Lecture Transatlantica
Curator: Eva Nowotny
Lecturer: Henri J. Barkey, Ellen Laipson

Eva Nowotny in conversation with Henri J. Barkey and Ellen Laipson

THE US AFTER THE ELECTIONS

 

Henri J. Barkey and Ellen Laipson explore in conversation with Eva Nowotny the future of the United States in the aftermath of the elections. This event brings together leading experts in international relations and U.S. policy to explore the implications of the electoral outcomes on American domestic and foreign policy. Despite the uncertainties, this election is sure to shape the future trajectory of the U.S. on the global stage.

Henri J. Barkey is the Bernard L. and Bertha F. Cohen chair in international relations at Lehigh University Pennsylvania and  Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously he was the director of the Middle East Center at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.

Ellen Laipson is the Director of the Master’s in International Security degree program and the Center for Security Policy Studies in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She joined Mason University after a distinguished 25-year career in government and as president and CEO of the Stimson Center (2002-15).

Eva Nowotny, Ambassador ret., Vice president of the Board of Bruno Kreisky Forum

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THU21. November, 07:00pm

DER STERBLICHE GOTT

Lecture Zeitenwende
Curator: Cathrin Kahlweit
Lecturer: Jörg Baberowski

Cathrin Kahlweit im Gespräch mit Jörg Baberowski

DER STERBLICHE GOTT
Macht und Herrschaft im Zarenreich

DIE ILLUSION DER STÄRKE – JÖRG BABEROWSKI ENTSCHLÜSSELT DAS ZARENREICH

Seit jeher inszenierten sich Russlands Herrscher als allmächtige Autokraten, die ihr Land mit eiserner Faust regierten. In Wahrheit aber war diese Inszenierung nur eine Fassade, hinter der sich die Schwäche des Staates verbergen konnte. Das zaristische Vielvölkerimperium war ein fragiles Gebilde, das im Modus der Improvisation beherrscht wurde, seit Peter I. es nach Westen geöffnet hatte. Wie aber gelang es den Zaren und ihrer Bürokratie, ein multiethnisches, schwach integriertes Imperium über zwei Jahrhunderte erfolgreich zusammenzuhalten? Jörg Baberowski erzählt Russlands Geschichte aus der Perspektive der Herrschaft und ihrer Zwänge.

Ansprüche und Möglichkeiten fanden in Russland nur selten zueinander. Der autokratische Staat operierte im Modus der Improvisation, weil es ihm an Instrumenten der Integration fehlte. Davon aber wussten auch diejenigen, die ihn herausforderten. Es war die Kritik, die sich mit den liberalen Reformen Alexanders II. (1855–1881) ausbreiten konnte, die die Staatskrise überhaupt erst auslöste. Der sterbliche Gott, wie Thomas Hobbes den Leviathan genannt hat, lebt von der Illusion der Stabilität und Unerschütterlichkeit. Doch der sterbliche Gott ist verwundbar. Er ruht auf Voraussetzungen, die er selbst garantieren muss. Davon ist in diesem Buch die Rede: Von Krisen und ihrer Bewältigung. Und insofern weist die Geschichte, die Jörg Baberowski in diesem Buch erzählt, auch über Russland hinaus: Weil sie nach den Grundlagen staatlicher und gesellschaftlicher Ordnungen fragt und zeigt, wie schnell sie sich auflösen können. Wer verstehen will, was Macht und Herrschaft sind und warum sie in Russland andere Formen annahmen als im Westen Europas, der findet Antworten in diesem Buch.

Jörg Baberowski ist Professor für die Geschichte Osteuropas an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und Autor zahlreicher Bücher und Aufsätze zur russischen und sowjetischen Geschichte. 2012 erhielt er für sein Werk „Verbrannte Erde. Stalins Herrschaft der Gewalt“ den Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse.

Cathrin Kahlweit, Journalistin und Publizistin, Korrespondentin der Süddeutschen Zeitung für Mittel- und Osteuropa

 

Jörg Baberowski:
Der sterbliche Gott. Macht und Herrschaft im Zarenreich
C. H. Beck Verlag, September 2024, ISBN 978-3-406-71420-7
Hardcover, € 52, 50; auch als e-book erhältlich

 

In Kooperation mit BUCH WIEN 2024 von 20.-24. November 2024

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FRI22. November, 07:00pm

IM TÄGLICHEN KRIEG

Lecture Philoxenia
Curator: Tessa Szyszkowitz
Lecturer: Andrej Kurkow

Tessa Szyszkowitz im Gespräch mit Andrej Kurkow

IM TÄGLICHEN KRIEG

 

Andrej Kurkow, der bekannteste Autor der Ukraine, spricht unentwegt für die Hoffnung, für eine ukrainische Zukunft. Seine Tagebucheinträge zeigen, was der Krieg, der sich immer mehr in den Alltag der Menschen integriert, mit ihnen macht. Die Diskrepanz einer jeden aufeinanderfolgenden Sekunde wird spürbar: Opernaufführungen bei Tageslicht – eine Bombe schlägt ein; Menschen schwimmen im Meer – eine Mine explodiert; eine Nacht durchschlafen – aber das feindliche Militär kennt die GPS-Daten eines jeden Schlafzimmers …

Andrej Kurkow berichtet – von einem Alltag im Ausnahmezustand, von den unscheinbaren Momenten, über Luftalarm, Freundschaft und Sorge, Identität, von einem Kampf der Worte und Kulturen, über die Einigkeit und Vielseitigkeit eines Landes; er schreibt über das Leben im Krieg. Er schreibt, damit wir nicht vergessen. Seit 2013, seit den Protesten am Majdan. Seit 2014, seit der Annexion der Krim. Durch Explosionen in der Nacht und in jeder unruhigen Sekunde schreibt er. Solang die Bewohner*innen der Ukraine nicht sicher sind. Solange sie nicht frei sind.

Andrej Kurkow wurde 1961 in Leningrad, dem heutigen St. Petersburg, geboren und lebte bis vor dem Angriffskrieg auf die Ukraine in Kyjiw. Er studierte Fremdsprachen, war Zeitungsredakteur und während des Militärdienstes Gefängniswärter. Danach wurde er Kameramann und schrieb zahlreiche Drehbücher. Seit 1996 ist er freier Schriftsteller und arbeitet für Radio und Fernsehen. 2022 erschienen bei Haymon Andrej Kurkows Aufzeichnungen aus der Ukraine: „Tagebuch einer Invasion“, in dem er sich den ersten Monaten des Angriffskrieges widmete und für das er den Geschwister-Scholl-Preis 2022 erhielt. 2024 erschien sein neustes Werk „Im täglichen Krieg“.

Tessa Szyszkowitz, Falter-Kolumnistin und Autorin, war Korrespondentin in Moskau, Brüssel, Jerusalem, London. Kuratorin der Reihe Philoxenia im Kreiskyforum, Senior Associate Fellow Royal United Services Institute in London.

 

Andrej Kurkov, Rebecca Dewald:
Tagebuch einer Invasion
Haymon Verlag, Oktober 2024, ISBN 978-3-7099-8179-5,€ 19,90

 

In Kooperation mit BUCH WIEN 2024 von 20.-24. November 2024

 

By participating in this event, you agree that any photos or recordings taken that include footage of your person may be published by the organizers of the event.