With the lecture series and the first Willy Brandt Lecture on December 7, 2021, the impulses of an international policy emanating from Willy Brandt will be illuminated with a view to today's challenges. Also, the competence of an intellectually and scientifically based political debate will be broadly and argumentatively shown. The political reference point of the 50th anniversary will be the event „Peace Policy of Our Time“ on December 8, 2021, which will address the question of how social democracy can revitalize the European peace mission in a more confusing world.
Since the 1970s, arms control and nuclear disarmament have been regarded as central components of international security policy. Above all, permanent dialogue and the jointly reviewed implementation of agreements contributed to transparency and trust. Since then, the will to limit nuclear armaments has experienced periodic ups and downs.
At present, however, rivalries are on the rise: Although the New START treaty between Russia and the U.S. was extended in time, the powers' rejection of the TPNW nuclear weapons ban treaty overshadows the situation. Is the international system on the threshold of a new nuclear arms race? And: How are threat scenarios and security challenges changing? The first Willy Brandt Lecture, held by Beatrice Fihn, is devoted to these and other questions.
Beatrice Fihn is the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish nuclear weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign coalition that works to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. Ms. Fihn led the campaign since 2014 and has worked to mobilize civil society throughout the development of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that Entered into Force on January 22nd 2021. Previously, she managed the disarmament programme at the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Reaching Critical Will project as well as worked with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. She has delivered keynote lectures on weapons law, humanitarian law, civil society engagement in diplomacy and multilateral institutions, as well as the gender perspective on disarmament work.
Philipp von Wussow is a philosopher at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, where he also habilitated in 2017. Most recently, he led a research project in Hamburg on cyberethics.
This lecture series is a cooperation event by: