Video: ZOiS Forum

#30PostSovietYears | Visions of a new European peace order?

11/05/2021

Digital lunch talk with Márta Pardavi, (Hungarian Helsinki Committee), Rafael Biermann (University of Jena), Nadja Douglas (ZOiS) and Dmitri Makarov (Moscow Helsinki Group)

1990/91 marked the end of the division of Europe and the onset of a new era of radical political and social change. The special summit of the Conference for Cooperation and Security in Europe in Paris in November 1990 and the Charter for a New Europe raised hopes and expectations not only among heads of state or governments but especially among civil societies regarding an era of cooperative security in Europe and dialogue between societies in East and West. Yet, many of these great ideas were ultimately doomed to failure and the vision of a truly common European peace architecture has not materialised.

In the context of the thematic year #30PostSovietYears, ZOiS in co-operation with FES Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe took a critical look back to shed light on the diverging perspectives held at the time. How compatible were the ideas and expectations on the level of state politics with those at the level of civil movements? What were the limitations of the new vision? And finally: What are the prospects for cooperative security in Europe today?

The event was dedicated to the historical dimension, recalling the implications of the Paris Charter and the constituent assembly of the Helsinki groups and committees in Prague in October 1990. Human rights and civil society activists at the time were ready to enter into a dialogue with high-level politics on important topics like transnational peace, disarmament, respect for human rights and inter-societal relations. Yet, with regard to many of these issues we are back almost at square one today.

Participants

  • Márta Pardavi, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee
  • Prof. Dr. Rafael Biermann, political scientist from the University of Jena
  • Dmitri Makarov, co-chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group
  • Moderation: Dr. Nadja Douglas (ZOiS)

The event was organised in cooperation with FES Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe (FES ROCPE) in Vienna .

#30YearsPostSoviet

Taking #30PostSovietYears as its theme for 2021, the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), in cooperation with the Körber Foundation, the German Association for East European Studies (DGO), the German Historical Institute Moscow, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Russia and Memorial International, is hosting a series of events and online formats that revisit the watershed year of 1991 and examine the legacies of the Soviet era.

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Contact

Anja Krüger
Communications Coordinator
events@zois-berlin.de