Harley Schlanger, Vice President of the Schiller Institute was interviewed on the English language Pakistan TV for their World This Morning Show. The interview was shown on national TV and covered the water conflict between India and Bangladesh. See Harley’s segment here.
Another interview was done on Iran’s Press TV on Trump’s Destabilization policies, on Press-tv Spotlight. Harley is one of two guests and the video can be found on the Press TV website.
Nov. 9, 2025 (EIRNS)—Creating an international youth movement organized around the seminal ideas of Lyndon H. LaRouche was the central subject of the second day of the Nov. 8-9 Paris conference, co-sponsored by the Schiller Institute and France’s Solidarity and Progress party. As the invitation to the event stated, the intense, day-long cadre school was designed “for the young and the most motivated among you. What is the physical economy and why should we study and teach it? What does a culture of life and discovery mean? How can we enable everyone to develop their creativity and use it as a tool for the common good? What could a culture of beauty and truth be?”
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche had issued the challenge in her remarks a day earlier, on Nov. 8, at the beginning of the day’s third panel, whose theme was “Youth From Around the World for Peace and Mutual Development.”
“So, I think that the need to create a new international youth movement is more urgent than ever before,” Zepp-LaRouche began, “because it is very clear that we have reached, in terms of the long arc of history, that if we make it through this period, historians will look back and say this particular time was when the decision had to be made to change the system or not survive. Because never before in history was there a situation where all of civilization was at stake.”
She emphasized the central strategic issue: “As long as we keep this geopolitical confrontation between NATO on the one side, and Russia, China and possibly other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, we are sitting on a complete powder keg,” which could even bring the world to the brink of nuclear war.
“But if you look at the world as a whole, you don’t want to compete geopolitically for influence in Africa between the West and China. That’s exactly what you don’t want. What you want is a cooperative approach, including equal partners from African nations to do this.”
To address this crisis, Zepp-LaRouche explained, “what we are offering is a plan that we will build an international youth movement in Africa, and in as many countries as possible. That we will build youth movements everywhere we can, in Asia, in Latin America…. That then we will perfect this plan for the industrialization of Africa, and naturally likewise in Latin America. And then we go to the industries [in the West] and tell them these are the options where you should invest.”
Zepp-LaRouche explained that such an approach is in the interest of the so-called West, as well as the Global Majority. “If Europe would make the decision to industrialize Africa, together with China and maybe Russia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, it could be done. We could change the direction quickly.”
She concluded: “So that’s really my challenge to you, that you all join this movement, now, on the spot, and commit yourself to be part of it.”
On March 20, 2025, the Schiller Institute posted its new Resource Page for LaRouche’s Oasis Plan,
presenting details of LaRouche’s Oasis Plan in order to aid in organizing for its
implementation, and get endorsements for it. As the introductory page states, the fifty-year
battle for the realization of this idea, despite agreement that LaRouche’s plan is a “good
idea,” has been stymied by the contention that ‘a political agreement’ must come first. “So
now, fifty years of lives lost, bloodshed and geopolitically motivated wars, later, proves the
truth of LaRouche’s point: it is once you have economic cooperation that, then and only then,
both sides will find a common interest to work together for peace and shared prosperity.”
The new landing page has three primary features: 1) a page of Oasis Plan concepts which
contains the details of LaRouche’s design as well as other contributors whom have put forth
expanded ideas for it; 2) an Endorsements and Other Voices page featuring both those who
have endorsed the LaRouche Oasis Plan, with a separate section of what other prominent
individuals are saying about its importance; and 3) a Videos, Events and Other Resources
page of an initial listing, with links, of videos, articles and press releases on the plan.
The Endorsements page leads off with a recent quote from Helga Zepp-LaRouche, “It is now,
in my view, the moment where we should all push the Oasis Plan, because Trump has said of
himself many times that he is a builder, and he does understand something about
construction. . . Building the Oasis Plan, providing fresh new water for all the countries in the
region,…” will eliminate a key source of conflict. The current list of 26 endorsers includes
ambassadors, professors, former elected officials, peace activists, religious leaders, from all
over the world from Africa to Europe to Palestine, to the United States. The remaining
section, “What prominent leaders are saying about LaRouche’s Oasis Plan,” includes former
Guyana President Donald Ramotar and South Africa’s former Minister of Foreign Relations
and Cooperation Dr. Naledi Pandor, among others.
The intent of this new resource is to educate people on the essentials of this plan, and then
organize for its implementation. Southwest Asia is known as the crossroads of civilization,
and its people must be allowed to live and prosper in peace. To overcome the cycle of
violence for good, we must give hope to a new generation of youth in Palestine, Israel, and
the Southwest Asia region as a whole, by creating a durable development. This is what the
Oasis Plan provides. The blood stains upon the collective soul of humanity must be and can
be cleansed with hope for a beautiful future—if we finally build it.
The Schiller Boston Community Chorus and friends hosted a music and poetry evening in honor of the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy on Friday, November 17, 2023 at Christ Church, Quincy Massachusetts.
Artists:
Sam Antonevich, violin
Rose Conservatory students (Greg Fernandes, executive director)
Josh Carlisle, tenor
Nancy Guice, mezzo soprano
Michelle Erin and Jen Pearl, sopranos
Mijin Choi, Malene Robinson, Judy Lai, piano
Schiller Institute Chorus
On December 15th, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus presented a Christmas Concert celebrating its 10th Anniversary as a NYC community chorus.
The concert took place at Good Shepherd-Faith Church, 152 W 66th St, New York City.
The program featured the Mozart Coronation Mass, K 317, and included excerpts from Handel’s Messiah as well as a selection of Christmas Spirituals and Carols.
The Schiller Institute NYC Chorus began on December 20th, 2014 as a Sing-Along performance of excerpts of Handel’s Messiah. The impromptu concert was organized by Schiller Institute musician Diane Sare in answer to the outrage over the Staten Island Grand Jury decision on the death-by-suffocation of Eric Garner, which had come in the wake of the Ferguson, MO riots after the killing of an unarmed African-American teenager, and which threatened to create dangerous divisions and violence in the City of New York. The concert was dedicated to “The Sanctity of Every Human Life.” Tragically, just as the chorus had opened the program by singing “Dona Nobis Pacem” (Give Us Peace), two police officers were murdered in Brooklyn as they sat in their patrol car.
The Schiller Institute has been performing and organizing for peace and harmony in the nation and the world ever since, wielding the power of classical art to help bring humanity together through a dialogue of cultures.
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Schiller Institute
Saturday, December 7, 2024 · 9am EST, 3pm CET
Panel 1: The Strategic Crisis: New and Final World War, or a New Paradigm of the One Humanity?
Saturday, December 7, 9:00 am EST; 15:00 hrs. CET
Please send questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
Moderator: Dennis Speed (U.S.), Schiller Institute: Welcome and Introduction
- Keynote: Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), Founder of the Schiller Institute
- Dmitri Trenin (Russia), Professor, Academic Supervisor of the Institute of World Military Economy and Strategy at the Higher School of Economics University (Moscow)
- H.E. Donald Ramotar (Guyana), former President of Guyana
- H.E. Ján Čarnogurský (Slovakia), former Prime Minister of Slovakia
- Prof. Zhang Weiwei (China), Professor of International Relations, Fudan University, China
- Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (U.S.), former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1993-1994
- Scott Ritter (U.S.), former UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq
- Col. (ret.) Larry Wilkerson, (U.S.) former chief of staff to the US Secretary of State
- Amb. Hossein Mousavian (Iran), former ambassador from Iran to Germany
Question & Answer Session
Panel 2: The Great Projects To Overcome the Migrant Crisis; The New, Quality Productive Forces; A New Just World Economic Order
Saturday, December 7, 1:00 pm EST; 19:00 hrs. CET
Please send questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
Moderator: Stephan Ossenkopp (Germany), Schiller Institute: Welcome and Introduction
- Keynote: Dennis Small (U.S.), head of the Ibero-America desk, Schiller Institute
- Dr. Alexander K. Bobrov (Russia), Associate Professor at the Department of Diplomacy, MGIMO University, Moscow
- H.E. Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian (Palestine), Palestinian Ambassador to Denmark
- Chandra Muzaffar (Malaysia), Founder and President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST)
- Michael Limburg (Germany), Master in engineering, Vice President EIKE (European Institute for Climate and Energy
- Prof. Glenn Diesen (Norway), Professor and Author
- Dr. Bedabrata Pain (India), Film director; former NASA senior research scientist “Deja vu, Where Past Meets the Future”; Joe Maxwell (U.S.) Co-founder of Farm Action, former Lt. Governor of Missouri; Mike Callicrate (U.S.), Owner of Ranch Foods Direct & Callicrate Cattle Co.; Robert Baker(US) Schiller Institute Agriculture Commission
Question & Answer Session
Please send questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
Sunday, December 8, 2024 · 9am EST, 3pm CET
Panel 3: The Science Drivers of Physical Economy Today
Sunday, December 8, 9:00 am EST; 15:00 hrs. CET
Moderator: Jason Ross (U.S.), Science Advisor to the Schiller Institute: Welcome and Introduction
- Keynote: Jacques Cheminade (France), Former Presidential Candidate, President of Solidarité et Progrès
- H.E. Naledi Pandor (South Africa), former Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa; “How Should the South Respond?”
- Theodore Postol (U.S.), Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Michele Geraci (Italy), Former Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Economic Development
- Sergey Pulinets (Russia), Principal Research Scientist, Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
- Jürgen Schöttle (Germany), Master in Engineering, Power Plant Construction
- Brian Harvey (Ireland), Space Historian
Question & Answer Session
Panel 4: The Beauty of the Cultures of the World: A Dialogue Among Civilizations
Sunday, December 8, 1:00 pm EST; 19:00 hrs. CET
Please send questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
Moderator: Harley Schlanger: Welcome and Introduction
- Keynote: Diane Sare (U.S.), former candidate for U.S. Senate from New York, President of The LaRouche Organization
- Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), Founder, Schiller Institute
- William Ferguson (U.S.), Schiller Institute
- Paul Gallagher (U.S.), Schiller Institute
- John Sigerson (U.S.), Musical Director, Schiller Institute
- Liliana Gorini (Italy), Chairwoman of Movisol, and Sebastiano Brusco (Italy), Pianist
- Nader Majd (Iran/U.S.), President and Director, Center for Persian Classical Music, Vienna, VA
Question and Answer Session
Sixty scholars from 16 countries gathered today in Berlin at a conference on, “The Protection of New and Emerging Rights: Views from China and Europe.” One of the featured speakers was Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, whose comments were prominently covered in China’s Global Times.
Global Times paraphrased Mrs. LaRouche: “It is probably impossible to speak about human rights without addressing the immediate danger to the very existence of the entire human species—war in Ukraine and war in the Middle East, which risk escalating into a global nuclear war. The highest priority for all people must be to rise above geopolitics, and the notion that nations or groups can impose their interests on others by any means is fundamentally flawed.”
Xinhua News Agency also covered Mrs. LaRouche’s comments, but failed to include her warnings of the war danger. According to Xinhua’s coverage, Zepp-LaRouche “praised China’s vision of a shared future for mankind, as well as initiatives like the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, which transcend narrow geopolitical interests to address modern human rights needs.”
This was the eighth such conference, which was started in 2015. This year’s seminar was co-hosted by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and the Central South University Human Rights Center. Organizers for the event included the German and Chinese Culture Foundation, the University of Münster, and the International Academy for the Philosophy of the Sciences.
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Dr. Chandra Muzaffar Letter to UN Leaders Insists, UNGA Must Act To Stop Gaza Genocide
July 29, 2024 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and initiator of the International Peace Coalition, declares her endorsement of Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s initiative and calls for international support for it.
Dr. Muzaffar, the President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), has posted his letter to the heads of all member states of the United Nations calling for taking emergency action to stop the continuing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories. It is worth reporting at length:
“I am writing on behalf of an international NGO committed to human dignity and social justice based in Malaysia. Like many other citizens groups, the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) is deeply concerned about the continuing catastrophe in Gaza and Palestine. In spite of numerous calls made by people everywhere to Israel to implement an immediate ceasefire and to facilitate the unhindered flow of essentials—water, electricity, food, fuel and medicines—to Gaza, the Israeli government is impervious to any suggestion that it should end immediately the wanton massacre of civilians, especially children and women who constitute the majority of those killed, and ensure that famine does not claim any more lives in that narrow, congested strip of land.
“Since it does not seem to be possible to restrain the Israeli government, we are now hoping that the UN General Assembly and Resolution 377 can be harnessed to curb Israel. The UNGA as you know can be asked to act if the UN Security Council has failed to overcome a prolonged conflict. A special session of the GA can be convened and it can take a vote on the catastrophe in Gaza and Palestine in general.
“It is our hope and the hope of many other citizens groups all over the world, especially the NGO World Beyond War, the initiator of this global campaign, that your government will give wholehearted support to the proposal to adopt [Resolution] 377, or the ‘Uniting for Peace’ Resolution. It will give a pivotal role to the UNGA in bringing to an end the genocide in Gaza. Uniting for Peace can not only impose an embargo upon the flow of arms to both Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian resistance group. It can also disarm both parties to the conflict and send a huge number of unarmed peacekeepers to Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. They will ensure that there is no armed clash in all parts of Palestine and even in Israel until a conference of all parties involved directly or indirectly in the conflict reach an agreement on restoring the full rights of the Palestinians, establishing a state where there is equality for all its citizens regardless of religion or ethnicity and the right of return of all Palestinian refugees is recognised and implemented.
“JUST is confident given your commitment to peace that you will bring [Resolution] 377 to fruition in the coming session of the GA and help the land of the three faiths to enjoy tranquility and harmony once again.”
In solidarity, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, President, International Movement for a Just World”
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 377 (V), adopted November 3, 1950, empowers the General Assembly to override the United Nations Security Council—in this case, specifically the United States—under conditions that the world deems immediate action to be essential, in order to preserve the international peace and security of the world. The United Nations website, regarding Emergency Special Sessions, says that Resolution 377 “resolves that if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or active aggression, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately with the view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures, including, in the case of a breach of the peace or active aggression, the use of armed force if necessary, to maintain or restore, international peace and security.”
[Print version of this article]
May 9—The Schiller Institute–France and the Fédération des Associations d’Amitié Chine-Afrique (FAACA) held a three-hour, international zoom conference May 4, on China-Africa cooperation in poverty reduction. The FAACA is a multi-nation association, with an office in Dakar, Senegal. The event was a platform for diplomats and experts to confer, sharing a common interest in economic development and peace.
The premise underlying the presentations and discussion is that, with concrete infrastructure projects and related education, mutually beneficial trade, agro-industrial expansion, and humanitarian and health assistance in the interim, poverty can be eliminated. The context for this was the sober acknowledgement and discussion of the dangerous reality that the warfare in Southwest Asia, in Ukraine, and conflict in the Indo-Pacific, can escalate to regional, and to even world war, risking nuclear annihilation.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and leader of the Schiller Institute, went through the dangerous global situation at the beginning of her presentation (pre-recorded on video), which opened the forum. Today is an “historic crossroads,” she said, with the positive choice for humanity to take the road toward a new economic and security architecture, in particular, the “Oasis Plan” approach to development. Her presentation was titled, “The Role of Europe in the New Multipolar World.”
Assane Mbengue, the President of FAACA, then followed on the topic, “The Contribution of Chinese Enterprises in the Battle Against Poverty in Africa.” Diplomats from China and Senegal took part in the deliberations. These were His Excellency Ibrahima Sory Sylla, Senegalese Ambassador to China; and Zhang Hangbao, First Secretary to His Excellency Xiao Han, Chinese Ambassador to Senegal.
Some 50 people attended the event, moderated by Sebastian Périmony, of the Schiller Institute–France, with very lively discussion. The other speakers, from Africa and China, brought experience and expertise to bear on development and strategic questions. These included Boubacar Tiemoko Diarra, of the Commission for the Diaspora in China, and Vice President of FAACA, speaking on “Studies of the Project for MTC (Traditional Chinese Medicine) in the Fight Against Poverty in China and its Application in Africa”; Edmond Moukala N’Gouemo, representative of UNESCO to Ghana, addressing “The Implication of the Diaspora in the Establishment of Basic Social Services for Development”; and Jimmy Yab, from the School of Economics, Social and Political Sciences, speaking on “The Geo-Economics of the Belt and Road Initiative in the Fight Against Poverty in Africa.” Also participating were Professor Liu Haifang, the Director of the Center for African Studies at Peking University, and Zhang Yun Simon, the CEO of SOMETA SA, Senegal’s leading iron and steel company.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, on behalf of the Schiller Institute, co-sponsor of the event, endorsed the anti-poverty, economic development efforts underway between China and Africa, and made an additional call for action, saying:
There is an epochal change taking place, and reason for absolute optimism that the plan of the African Union for 2063 will be fully realized. It will mean that the vision of statesmen who fought for the development of Africa, and several of whom paid with their life, is coming true, such as Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt; Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, the father of the Non-Aligned Movement; Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal; Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso; Nelson Mandela in South Africa; and foremost, Lyndon LaRouche, who had made a measuring rod for the moral identity of humanity [of] how Africa is treated.
Now the moral leadership role is already being taken over by the South African government, because it was they who brought the case of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza to the International Court of Justice. It was not the collective West. It was South Africa, and they did so in evoking the tradition of the fight against apartheid.
The Global South, the Global Majority, is actually the key today, in my view, to overcome the strategic crisis and the danger of nuclear war. Because the relationship between NATO and Russia, and NATO and China, is already so much poisoned and slandered, that it definitely requires the addition of the Global Majority to come out with a very strong voice. And you must unite. Speak with one voice. Because as Prime Minister Nehru and President Sukarno said in Bandung in 1955, if it comes to nuclear war, the Global South, the developing sector, will die as well, even if they die a few days or weeks later.
So therefore, the Global Majority has the absolute moral legitimacy to demand that the countries of the Global North cooperate, that they must stop confrontation, and they must work with the BRICS-Plus.
Read the Invitation
The Schiller Institute’s Copenhagen seminar is designed to further the crucial dialogue held during our international online conference on April 13, 2024 entitled, “The Oasis Plan: The LaRouche Solution for Peace Through Development Between Israel and Palestine, and for All of Southwest Asia.” (See the full videos, and an hour-long summary video.)
Among the speakers from five continents were two of our guest speakers. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder and international leader of the Schiller Institute, presented the dangers facing the Middle East and the world, and the hope for the future.
H.E. Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Authority Ambassador to Denmark, presented the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian people, and the need for a political solution based on Palestinian sovereignty and equal rights, supported by economic development. There can be no military solution, he stated.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche began her speech by highlighting the urgent need to inject a perspective of hope to show the way out of the catastrophic situation in Southwest Asia, warning of the potential for a full-fledged regional, and even global war. She stressed the need for a totally new approach that considers the combined economic and security interests of the Palestinians, the Israelis, and all the countries of the region.
While immediately after the October 7th Hamas attack, the sympathy of much of the world was with Israel, that changed day after day, week after week, month after month, as the world watched, not a measured counter-reaction, but relentless ethnic cleansing, with 40% of the 33,400 deaths being children, and an entire population threatened with starvation. (See and read more at the links below.)
Now, the killing must stop, and the rebuilding must begin.
Massive humanitarian aid must flow in.
An international conference must be convened to find a political solution, including full international recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state.
But where can the light come from amidst the current darkness? The Schiller Institute is convinced that a future vision of economic development for the whole region, now including a reconstructed Gaza as the first step, is needed to light the path to peace.
This vision is the Oasis Plan, first proposed by the American economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche (1922-2019) in 1975 after a trip to the region. The Oasis Plan addresses the greatest barrier to development in the region — the shortage of fresh water — through the construction of a network of desalination plants, ideally nuclear powered, along the Mediterranean coast and along two new canals: a Red Sea-Dead Sea canal, and a Dead Sea-Mediterranean canal. An overview can be seen in the LaRouche Organization’s 14-minute video, The Oasis Plan: LaRouche’s Solution for the Middle East.
“[W]ithout economic development,” the video states, “without a viable and meaningful path of progress into the future, political agreements in themselves are unsustainable….This is what Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin came to realize — there is no purely military basis for peace or security; development is essential…. By cooperating to fight the desert, rather than each other, the people of the region will better be able to recognize the humanity in each other …There are no human animals.”
But how can the Israelis and Palestinians ever make peace after what has happened? While the history of Southwest Asia has been devastated by the British Empire policy of divide and conquer, Helga Zepp-LaRouche urges us to rise above the level of the conflict – of despair, hatred and vengeance, to find a common interest in increasing the welfare of all the people through economic development of the region as a whole.
This has to be accompanied by ending geopolitics and designing a new international security and development architecture.
Death, destruction and starvation have been used as weapons of war; economic development must be used as a weapon of peace: to turn swords into plowshares. We must all act now to stop the killing and start the rebuilding.
The Schiller Institute Copenhagen seminar will be an important contribution to the dialogue about how to bring peace and prosperity to this long-suffering part of the world, and initiate a new paradigm of international relations.
We sincerely hope that the Ambassador, and/or other diplomatic representatives will be able to attend.
Additional links:
The Oasis Plan: Peace Only Through Development
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and international leader, and American economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche’s (1922-2019) decades-long collaborator. (Spoke online).
Stop the Killing, Start the Rebuilding: Palestinian Ambassador to Denmark H.E. Prof. Dr. Hassassian
H.E. Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Authority Ambassador to Denmark.
Formerly ambassador to the U.K. and Hungary. Master’s degree in international relations from the University of Toledo, Ohio, and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Cincinnati. Was Executive Vice President of Bethlehem University on the West Bank, and professor at the University of Maryland where he developed a course on Israel-Palestine conflict resolution. Was the PLO’s chief advisor on the status of Jerusalem.
The Impossible is Self-imposed: Peace Through Economic Development is the Only Way Forward in West Asia
Hussein Askary, Schiller Institute Southwest Asia Coordinator.
Co-author of “Extending the New Silk Road to Southwest Asia and Africa.”
May 9—The Schiller Institute in Denmark held a seminar May 8 in Copenhagen, for the diplomatic community and other guests, on the theme, “Stop the Killing and Start Rebuilding Gaza and the Region with the Oasis Plan: The LaRouche Solution for Peace Through Development.” Four ambassadors and many other diplomats came in person from twelve embassies, which represented Southwest Asia and North Africa, nations elsewhere in Asia and Africa, and Western Europe.
The audience was intensely engaged over a three-hour period, in hearing the engaging presentations, and participating in the dialogue, whose focus was intended both to contribute to an immediate end to the death and destruction in Gaza, and to outline a development path.
Tom Gillesberg, Chairman of the Schiller Institute–Denmark, moderated the event, noting the current efforts by the Schiller Institute in many nations, to promote dialogue on the concept of “peace through development,” in Palestine, Israel and globally, to contribute to a new world economic and security architecture.
On April 13, the Schiller Institute internationally held a day-long online conference, now available in video-archive, titled, “The Oasis Plan: The LaRouche Solution for Peace Through Development Between Israel and Palestine, and for All of Southwest Asia.” Since February, a 14-minute video has been circulating on “The Oasis Plan.”
In brief, the concept is that development of infrastructure to provide reliable water, power, transportation, health care, housing, and other basics in support of modern agro-industrial activity, is the basis for mutual-interest security. In the Trans-Jordan, this involves building new water conveyances and nuclear desalination; new high-speed rail lines, interconnecting Africa, Asia, and Europe; plentiful power, and more.
In 1975, statesman-economist Lyndon LaRouche (1922–2019) presented this approach as the “Oasis Plan” for Southwest Asia, when he visited the region, and also issued that year his “International Development Bank” funding proposal.
The invitation statement from the Schiller Institute, addressed to the entire Copenhagen diplomatic community, called for discussion of a new paradigm in this spirit:
“Death, destruction and starvation have been used as weapons of war; economic development must be used as a weapon of peace: to turn swords into plowshares. We must all act now to stop the killing and start the rebuilding.
The Schiller Institute Copenhagen seminar will be an important contribution to the dialogue about how to bring peace and prosperity to this long-suffering part of the world, and initiate a new paradigm of international relations.”
Speakers, Peace through Development
The three principal presentations began with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, by video link from Germany. She is founder and leader of the Schiller Institute, and decades-long collaborator in development diplomacy with her husband, Lyndon LaRouche (1922–2019). Second was H.E. Ambassador Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Authority Ambassador to Denmark. These two continued in dialogue their exchanges begun at the earlier, April 13, international Schiller Institute conference, including on the pressing question of whether “political” differences must be solved before “economic” development can proceed.
Speaking third was Hussein Askary, Schiller Institute Southwest Asia Coordinator, who co-authored the Schiller Institute 2017 book, Extending the New Silk Road to Southwest Asia and Africa, and made the Arabic translation of the EIR book, The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche began her presentation, titled, “The Oasis Plan: Peace Only Through Development,” with the horrifying news of the start of the Israeli attack on Rafah. She gave a global strategic analysis of the danger of regional and world warfare, describing the threat of even nuclear war from the escalation in Southwest Asia, and as an outgrowth of the NATO-Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Zepp-LaRouche called on the diplomats to collaborate to promote the “Oasis Plan” as a lever to get to a new paradigm and a new international security and development architecture, the only way out of the existential crisis the world is undergoing. She described her ten principles for a new security and development architecture, which she issued for international discussion in 2022. The transcript of her remarks in full is available in this issue of EIR.
Stop the Killing, Start Rebuilding
H.E. Amb. Prof. Dr. Hassassian spoke on the theme, “Stop the Killing and Start the Rebuilding.” He gave a very polemical speech about the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian people, the history of the conflict, and what is necessary to stop the genocide. The Ambassador called on the 12 countries represented at the seminar, and the international community, to act to stop the killing, and he stressed the need for a political solution based on Palestinian sovereignty, supported by economic development. The discussion included the question of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Amb. Hassassian speaks from long experience and commitment. He is a former ambassador to the UK and to Hungary. He was Executive Vice President of Bethlehem University on the West Bank, and a professor at the University of Maryland, where he developed a course on Israel-Palestine conflict resolution. He was the PLO’s chief advisor on the status of Jerusalem. His Master’s degree is in international relations from the University of Toledo, Ohio, and his PhD is in political science from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio.
See his interview March 15, 2024, with the Schiller Institute.
The LaRouche Oasis Plan
Hussein Askary presented concrete aspects of the economic geography and principles of development of the Oasis Plan approach, under the topic, “The Impossible Is Self-Imposed: Peace through Economic Development Is the Only Way Forward in West Asia.” He especially challenged the axioms behind the zero-growth movement and its political expression. He explained that principles of development are based on the reality that humanity’s creativity transforms nature.
Askary used examples from his recent trip to Xinjiang to show the Chinese development policy to green the desert. In the discussion periods, wide-ranging questions came up, including whether there are too many people in the world, and what to do about terrorism in West Africa, where he emphasized the need for economic development as an antidote.
Promote a Global Oasis Plan Discussion
During the discussion period, Helga Zepp-LaRouche answered one question that came up, by appealing to the Global South to make their voices heard.
A concrete proposal among the discussants is that the Oasis Plan should be on the agenda of certain of the symposia on security held annually by foundations and nations. Palestinian voices might formally request this. H.E. Ambassador Prof. Dr. Hassassian added getting the discussion going in the universities, and emphasized the importance of the Oasis Plan as a catalyst for economic development, and the work of the Schiller Institute and LaRouche movement in promoting it.
The immediate opportunity for speaking out at a formal international platform comes just two days after the Copenhagen meeting, when the United Nations General Assembly has on its May 10 agenda, the question of statehood for Palestine, for debate and, likely, a vote.
The general reaction to the seminar itself, from the diplomats, was that they were grateful for the ideas, which are very different from what is routinely presented. As one Asian diplomat said, “My mind is blown. It will take me days to think about all of the new ideas presented.”
Helga Zepp-LaRouche reported to the International Peace Coalition, “It was an extremely important follow-up meeting on the level of diplomats and ambassadors, and out of this meeting came a complete commitment to continue the organizing, kick it up to a higher level by trying to get a big international conference with the participation of states on the need to put the Oasis Plan, the development plan for the entire region of Southwest Asia in earnest on the agenda.”