Renata Schmidtkunz in conversation with Amir Cheheltan

AN EXILE IN MY OWN COUNTRY

Amir Hassan Cheheltan is one of the most important contemporary Iranian writers. He lives and writes in Tehran. His novels have been banned from publication in Iran for over 20 years. They are published in German translation before any other languages. His latest book “The Rose of Nishapour”’was published by C.H. Beck in October 2024.

Renata Schmidtkunz talks to Amir Cheheltan at the Bruno Kreisky Forum about his new novel and his literary work, about the challenges of living and writing in Tehran, and the difficulties under which a vibrant creative cultural and intellectual scene in Iran is trying to survive and make their voices heard within the country and abroad. What are the perspectives of women and youth, of creative people and thinkers in the light of the situation in Iran and the war and increasing tensions in the Middle East? How is Europe perceived and what can be done better to support the potential and survival of artists and thinkers in Iran? 

Amir Hassan Cheheltan, writer, born in 1956 in Tehran and studied electrical engineering first in Iran, later in Great

Renata Schmidtkunz, Journalist, Film maker and Moderator, Director of the Radio Programme Series „Im Gespräch“, Radio Österreich 1

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Lyndsey Stonebridge

WE ARE FREE TO CHANGE THE WORLD
What do Hannah Arendt’s lessons in love and disobedience mean for us?

What a combination: Love and Disobedience. The author Lyndsey Stonebridge, Professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham, is choosing this combination on purpose. Especially now, when nations vote for authoritarian leaders and democracy is threatened, Stonebridge focuses on Arendt’s writing and these two crucial

And disobedience? In her 1970 essay „Civil Disobedience“ the leading public intellectual of her time defended the right of American citizens to dissent from the laws and policies of the government. It was Hannah Arendt’s experience from resistance to totalitarian rule in her first home country Germany which lead her to conviction that every person must decide for themselves when injustice calls for disobedience. Following Immanuel Kant Arendt emphasised that independent thinking is the first defence against tyranny. Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism” became a bestseller when Donald Trump was elected in 2016. In 2024 it is even more relevant. Trump 2.0 is Trump Unleashed.

Robert Misik im Gespräch mit Andreas Reckwitz

VERLUST

»Kann der Fortschrittsanspruch der westlichen Moderne

Verlusterfahrungen, aber auch nur das Gefühl drohender Verluste, die Empfindung, dass alles auf schwankendem Boden steht und die Zukunft eingetrübt ist – das ist heute ein beinahe dominantes Zeitgefühl geworden und ist mitverantwortlich für Gereiztheiten, Populismus und andere politische und soziale Pathologien unserer Tage. Andreas Reckwitz, der vielgefeierte Soziologe und Zeitdiagnostiker, hat zum Verlust, dem „Grundproblem der Moderne“, nun das Buch der Saison geschrieben.

Andreas Reckwitz, geboren 1970, ist Professor für Allgemeine Soziologie und Kultursoziologie an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und war Fellow im Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles. Sein Buch „Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten“ wurde 2017 mit dem Bayerischen Buchpreis ausgezeichnet und stand 2018 auf der Shortlist des Sachbuchpreises der Leipziger Buchmesse. 2019 erhielt er den Leibniz-Preis der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Robert Misik, Autor und Journalist

True to the slow pace of European decision making, the new European Commission under its President Ursula von der Leyen will take office half a year after the elections to the European Parliament.

The challenges for the new Commission are obvious: the war in Ukraine is still raging, the European economy is comparatively weak and the European Green Deal is an immense challenge. Europe has little or no influence on the ongoing war in the Middle East. In addition, on November 5, 2024, Donald Trump was elected the 47th US president after a triumphant election victory – this time with an even more radical agenda than during his first term. His friends in the EU, like Hungary’s Prime Minister Orbán and his right-wing allies, will try to block any movements towards greater foreign policy cohesion towards his administration, but also that of Putin’s Russia.

Europe is facing a crucial test. How can it manage to protect its interests independently and develop its own defense policy in the face of US disengagement? Will the democratic forces prevail? And what role does the EU Commission play in this?

Prof. Erik Jones is Director of the Robert Schuman

Helfried Carl, diplomat, since 2019 partner of the

Cathrin Kahlweit in Conversation with Anna Arutunyan

OPPOSITION IN RUSSIA – A FUTURE WITHOUT PUTIN

There are not many Russia experts with an expertise as big as Anna Arutunyan. She was born in Russia, raised in the United States and then went back to the country of her birth as an analyst, author and journalist. Anna covered Russian politics as a reporter for The Moscow News. She served as Russia’s senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, is a Kennan Institute Fellow and is being printed in USA Today, Foreign Affairs and other renowned publications.

Anna Arutunyan is also the author of several books on Russia,

At the Kreisky-Forum she will talk with the publicist and expert for Eastern Europe and Ukraine, Cathrin Kahlweit, about the way, the Russian autocracy works, how it might be threatened from inside and destabilised from outside. How influencal, if at all, is the Russian opposition, and how far will Wladimir Putin carry the onslought on Ukraine and the West?

Anna Arutunyan, Russian American journalist, analyst, and author. She is a global fellow at the Wilson Center.

Cathrin Kahlweit, Journalistin und Publizistin

Robert Misik im Gespräch mit Michal Hvorecký und Anna Durnova

WOHIN DRIFTET DIE SLOWAKEI?

Der Autor Michal Hvorecký über den Autoritarismus in unserem Nachbarland

Michal Hvorecký ist einer der führenden slowakischen Romanciers und Essayisten der Gegenwart – und zugleich eine der mutigsten Stimmen der demokratischen und liberalen Zivilgesellschaft. Immer wieder erhebt der in Bratislava lebende Autor das Wort gegen den autoritären Kurs der

Anna Durnová, Wiener Soziologieprofessorin mit tschechischen Wurzeln, kommentiert das Abdriften der Slowakei aus einer breiteren mittel-osteuropäischen Perspektive. Ist Zentraleuropa – mit Ungarn, der Slowakei, in gewissem Sinne auch Österreich – eine Brutstätte der

Michal Hvorecký, slowakischer Schriftsteller und Journalist

Anna Durnova, Professorin für Politische Soziologie am Institut für Soziologie der Universität Wien

Robert Misik, Autor und Journalist

In Kooperation mit ⁠B⁠⁠UCH⁠⁠ WIEN 2024⁠ von 20.-24. November 2024

Tessa Szyszkowitz im Gespräch mit Andrej Kurkow

IM TÄGLICHEN KRIEG

Andrej Kurkow, der bekannteste Autor der Ukraine, spricht unentwegt für die Hoffnung, für eine ukrainische Zukunft. Seine Tagebucheinträge zeigen, was der Krieg, der sich immer mehr in den Alltag der Menschen integriert, mit ihnen macht. Die Diskrepanz einer jeden aufeinanderfolgenden Sekunde wird spürbar: Opernaufführungen bei Tageslicht – eine Bombe schlägt ein; Menschen schwimmen im Meer – eine Mine explodiert; eine Nacht durchschlafen – aber das feindliche Militär kennt die GPS-Daten eines jeden Schlafzimmers …

Andrej Kurkow berichtet – von einem Alltag im Ausnahmezustand, von den unscheinbaren Momenten, über Luftalarm, Freundschaft und Sorge, Identität, von einem Kampf der Worte und Kulturen, über die Einigkeit und Vielseitigkeit eines Landes; er schreibt über das Leben im Krieg. Er

Andrej Kurkow wurde 1961 in Leningrad, dem heutigen

Tessa Szyszkowitz, Falter-Kolumnistin und Autorin,

In Kooperation mit ⁠BUCH WIEN 2024⁠ von 20.-24. November 2024

Cathrin Kahlweit im Gespräch mit Jörg Baberowski

DER STERBLICHE GOTT
Macht und Herrschaft im Zarenreich

DIE ILLUSION DER STÄRKE – JÖRG BABEROWSKI ENTSCHLÜSSELT DAS ZARENREICH

Seit jeher inszenierten sich Russlands Herrscher als allmächtige

Ansprüche und Möglichkeiten fanden in Russland nur selten zueinander. Der autokratische Staat operierte im Modus der Improvisation, weil es ihm an Instrumenten der Integration fehlte. Davon aber wussten auch diejenigen, die ihn herausforderten. Es war die Kritik, die sich mit den

Jörg Baberowski ist Professor für die Geschichte Osteuropas an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und Autor zahlreicher Bücher und Aufsätze zur russischen und sowjetischen Geschichte. 2012 erhielt er für sein Werk „Verbrannte Erde. Stalins Herrschaft der Gewalt“ den Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse.

Cathrin Kahlweit, Journalistin und Publizistin

Eva Nowotny in conversation with Henri J. Barkey and Ellen Laipson

THE US AFTER THE ELECTIONS

Henri J. Barkey and Ellen Laipson explore in conversation with Eva Nowotny the future of the United States in the aftermath of the elections. This event brings together leading experts in international relations and U.S. policy to explore the implications of the electoral outcomes on American domestic and foreign policy. Despite the uncertainties, this election is sure to shape the future trajectory of the U.S. on the global stage.

Henri J. Barkey is the Bernard L. and Bertha F. Cohen chair in international relations at Lehigh University Pennsylvania and  Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously he was the director of the Middle East Center at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.

Ellen Laipson is the Director of the Master’s in International Security degree program and the Center for Security Policy Studies in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She joined Mason University after a distinguished 25-year career in government and as president and CEO of the Stimson Center (2002-15).

Eva Nowotny, Ambassador ret., Vice president of the Board of Bruno Kreisky Forum

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Nomi Bar-Yaacov

MIDDLE EAST 2024: ALTERNATIVES TO ALL OUT WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND IRAN

On the eve of the US-elections Nomi Bar-Yaacov will discuss the implications of the current escalation of violence between Israel and Iran on the region. She will discuss the plans on the table for de-escalation in the context of geopolitical trends and concerns.

Bar-Yaacov has many years of experience with Track-2-negotiations in the Middle East. She is convinced that there is no military solution to the conflicts in the region and the only solution is to build on to what the 57 Islamic States and Arab States are offering at the UN, a ceasefire in Gaza, return of all 101 hostages, return of all the displaced Gazans, a ceasefire in Lebanon and an implementation of United

Nomi Bar-Yaacov is a leading international lawyer,

Tessa Szyszkowitz is an Austrian journalist and author. A UK correspondent for Austrian and German publications such as Falter or Tagesspiegel, she curates Philoxenia at Kreisky Forum and she is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute in