With hot kinetic wars in eastern Europe and Southwest Asia threatening to become endless wars, or even explode into nuclear conflict; and with the economic consequences of these wars threatening even more lives, it is legitimate to raise the question, “Where are the adults in the room?  Are there no leaders or movements offering an alternative?”

A two-day conference sponsored by the Schiller Institute took up this challenge, with a series of speakers including present and former government officials, journalists, academics and activists from fifteen nations.  Held in the German capital of Berlin, there was a unity of effect which emerged, stemming from a willingness of the speakers to address the underlying dynamics of the crisis, rather than sticking to the language of geopolitics, which is shaping the narrative, and which is designed to limit the discussion.  

By addressing the issues which are usually glossed over or completely ignored, the 150 or so in attendance left with a heightened sense that not only are there solutions, but they can be realized, through a revival of diplomacy, driven by an active citizenry engaged in making creative discoveries in order to find solutions. 

Given the urgency of the global crisis, the Schiller Institute has compiled two videos, with summaries of some of the speakers, divided into the two themes addressed.  The first video takes up “The Urgent Need for a New International Security and Development Architecture”; the second, “The End of 500 years of Colonization: Toward a New Era of Peace and Development”.   The keynote address by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche identified the crisis as resulting from efforts of imperial forces centered in London to perpetuate a global system which is bankrupt.  The attempt to maintain a Unipolar Order, she said, requires war against Russia and China, nations in the forefront committed to building a new security and development architecture.

Zepp-LaRouche has been organizing for this New Paradigm for years, based on her collaboration with her late husband, economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche.  Under her direction, the Schiller Institute has become a leader in the fight to replace the collapsing system with a new security and development architecture.  In her keynote, she said this requires that the “West” should reach out to the Global South, which is moving in this direction.  To do this, we citizens in the West must “rediscover our souls.”

This theme was taken up by many of the speakers whose comments are included in the two summary videos.  These include former U.S. diplomat Chas Freeman, former U.N. official Pino Arlacchi, Professor Zhang Weiwei of the China Institute at Fudan University,  Ambassador Eskindir Yirga Asfaw from Ethiopia, and U.S. nuclear expert Theodore Postol.  

All speeches of the full two-panel conference is available at the Schiller Institute website.

In addition, for broad circulation, two summary videos, have just been released and are posted on the Schiller YouTube channel and website.