POST-TRAUMATIC SOVEREIGNTY

Helfried Carl in conversation with Karolina Wigura
POST-TRAUMATIC SOVEREIGNTY

With Russia's attack on Ukraine, the old Central European fear is back: becoming a victim of the superpowers. Unlike in Germany, from whose soil two world wars started, there was no hesitation in Warsaw, Tallinn and elsewhere. Only those who have themselves been attacked and, like Poland, even wiped off the map understand that military self-defence is justified. In their lucid essay, Karolina Wigura, historian of ideas, and Jarolaw Kuisz, political scientist, describe how today's war reactivates historical traumas; why Warsaw is assuming a leading role in European defence policy, even though the ruling PiS party invokes the EU as a threat to its own sovereignty.

The event will be held in English.

Karolina Wigura is a historian of ideas, sociologist and journalist, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Kultura Liberalna Foundation based in Warsaw, which publishes one of the leading online weekly magazines in Poland; Senior Fellow of the Centre for Liberal Modernity based in Berlin. She works as an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Warsaw. Together with Jaroslaw Kruisz, she has published the book „Posttraumatic Sovereignty“ with Suhrkamp.

Helfried Carl, Diplomat, partner of the company he co-founded in 2019 Innovation in Politics Institute in Vienna. From 2014-2019 he was Austria's ambassador to the Slovak Republic, before that, from 2008-2014, he was head of office and foreign policy advisor to National Council President Barbara Prammer.

Jarosław Kuisz, Karolina Wigura:
Post-traumatic sovereignty. An essay
Translated from the English by Stephan Gebauer
Suhrkamp Verlag, October 2023, ISBN 978-3-518-12783-4, 18,50 €