Editor’s note: Renowned German political scientist Prof. Ulrike Guérot delivered the keynote address at the East-West Forum held in Istanbul on September 26-27, assessing the fault lines of global geopolitics. In this inaugural gathering, organized jointly by Harici Media and the European Transcontinental Initiative (ETI), Guérot called for peace, justice, and multipolarity in the face of the spiraling conflict looming over the world. Arguing that Europe’s current technocratic and Atlanticist orientation has severed the continent from its historical roots, the thinker stressed that an independent security architecture -one that does not exclude Russia- is essential.

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Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Distinguished Guests,

Dear Participants,

It is my great honour and my genuine pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the Turkish media platform Harici and the European Transcontinental Initiative, to the first Istanbul East-West Forum.

My warm thanks go to my committed colleague and friend Tunç Akkoç and to his entire team, who took the initiative to create this forum and to bring this new international format to life here in Istanbul — a city that has been, for centuries, the bridge between East and West.

With the East-West Forum, we want to build a platform for the global critical community. For all those who still believe in peace, at a moment when the world stands at the edge of a third world war. For all those who wish to shape the twenty-first century in the pursuit of peace, justice and equality for all people — as Immanuel Kant envisioned it in his essay on perpetual peace already. And for all those who still believe in the Charter of the United Nations, which preserves, like a jewel, the promise first declared in 1789: that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

More than two centuries later, it is time to move closer to that goal. And the world of the twenty-first century has every resource it needs to do so.

What is missing

What is missing today is not energy. Not food. Not communication. Not resources. All of this exists.

Discourses of scarcity are neo-feudal discourses — the language of those who do not wish to share.

Buddhist, Muslim and Christian traditions all know a deeper truth: where there is abundance, abundance will grow. That is what we believe here in Istanbul — here, on the bridge, at the crossroads of cultures.

What is missing today is diplomacy. Wisdom. Political will. And love.

And we hope that this signal goes out from Istanbul today — into the world’s press, on the very day the UN General Assembly closes:

Yes, a different world order is possible.

Yes, US-hegemony can and must come to an end.

Yes, peace can be achieved.

Yes, global war can be avoided.

Yes, a multipolar world is emerging — and fortunately so.

Yes, the world will survive the end of what we used to call “the West.”

Yes, the so-called „rules-based order“ has proven hollow — and the international community can return to the rules of the UN Charter.

Today, we send these greetings from Istanbul to New York. We are here to think about the international order of the twenty-first century, and to search for alternatives to the status quo.

The state of the world

This will not be easy. The international order, as you all know, is in disarray.

Even as we speak, we are witnessing wars in the plural. Struggles over resources. The seizure of countries and territories. And, above all, a situation in Gaza that UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has called unbearable.

The world will not forget what Israel is doing there. And we all follow the case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice.

Let me quote Nelson Mandela: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

Alongside these tectonic shifts in the international system, we are living through a change of paradigms on several levels at once.

There is the end of the liberal order.

There is artificial intelligence and robotics, which raise the question of the survival of our species, and which reveal the hubris of transhumanism — of homo deus.

And there is the ambition to conquer Mars, as though this earth, the one globe we all share, were not good enough for us — if only we took proper care of it. That is, why I am personally very sad that the Vatican, this year, finally could not send a representative to the East-West Forum, because Pope Leo XIV has put down inspiring thoughts on all this in his recent Encyclic Magnifica Humanitas.

A European voice

Now, as the person who has the honour of opening this first East-West Forum, allow me a few words as a European citizen.

Many years ago, I worked for Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995 — a man who, together with François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, sought a peaceful, democratic and social European Union. Delors was a socialist, a Catholic and a trade unionist.

The Europe he imagined has today been distorted beyond recognition. And that is a tragedy — not only for Europe, but for the world.

I speak here for the many European citizens who do not want war with Russia. Who no longer wish to be instrumentalised for US-American geostrategic interests that are suicidal for the European continent. Who still hold to the vision codified in the Charter of Paris of 1990: a European security architecture with Russia.

Who still dream of a politically united Europe — not one highjacked by narrow or vengeful interests of a High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, that do not reflect the interests of 450 million European citizens. These 450 million are tired of ridiculous false flag operation like at Leipzig airport and the limpid effort to pull NATO countries into the Ukrainian war that even Ukrainians want to end soon.

And those citizens do not wish to see an ever more technocratic Union drift toward authoritarian habits — placing critical voices on extra-legal EU-sanction lists, and dragging the continent of the Enlightenment back toward the dark Middle Ages.

Allow me also a word as a German citizen.

I stand for the silent majority of German citizens that are bewildered that critical infrastructure on our territory can be destroyed by a country that used to be our friend and partner— and that our government has nothing to say about it.

These Germans are equally shocked that our government still supports Volodymyr Zelensky, who is – and I quote Marsha Havrishko‘s recent peace on Substack here – „The Jewish Face of a far-right Renaissance in Ukraine”, which I recommend you all to read.[1] This silent – or silenced – majority of German citizens is disgusted that the government of the one country that is responsible for the Shoa of the last century is today supporting facistoid and racist behavior and military actions of the Ukrainian and Israeli Governments. It is not within my power to do so. But if it were, I would apologize for it!

Why we are here

My personal aim, when I founded the Istanbul East-West Forum together with Tunç Akkoç and Harici, was to bring together some of the most brilliant and independent minds in the world to help us Europeans to overcome the maelstrom of the current nihilism, that reigns in EU-Europe. I do quote my beloved French poet Rimbaud: Qui ne peut pas construire, doit détruire. As things stand, Europe seems unable to find a face-saving way to play a constructive role in ending the war in Ukraine. And so it prefers escalation: in order not to face its own guilt, its own failure, its own political weakness.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please understand: this EU-Europe is dangerous — not because of its strength, but because of a weakness it cannot admit, and a nihilism that may suck it into self-destruction.

The European Transcontinental Initiative, which I founded together with Hauke Ritz and Isabell Casel — both of whom will moderate a panel today — therefore has two mottos:

Shaping Europe beyond the EU and

Shaping Europe for a multipolar world.

A Europe that moderates between East and West. And obviously, in this Europe, Türkiye -because today we are in Türkiye- has an important role to play! We want you to know that many, that most European citizens dream of this! A Europe that emancipates from the EU, from NATO and from the US, precisely to be ready for a multipolar world. Please, help us shaping this Europe!

How we will work

Today we will discuss four themes in four panels.

A request to our panelists: please be brief, be precise, and please stay close to the catalogue of questions we sent you. We aim at a highly structured conference, because we intend to publish our findings — and to build next year’s agenda on them.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the East-West Forum is here to stay!

From now on, we will meet every year, on the third weekend of September, in Istanbul. So please, already mark the dates in your calendars.

Designing the twenty-first century will take a great deal of work — conceptual, intellectual and emotional work. One conference will not be enough.

And please do not forget: YOU are not an audience. You are the conference.

Tomorrow morning, we will need you. Around this forum we want to build a network: a publication schedule, working groups, a business council to help fund the coming years, an academic advisory board, and a group of media partners.

With your networks, your channels, your ideas, your research, your writings and your contacts — all of us together are the Istanbul East-West Forum.

So please: be engaged. Be demanding. And help us make this forum larger, stronger and more visible in the years to come.

Thank you for your presence. Thank you all for being here!

[1] The article can be found on Substack here: https://martahavryshko.substack.com/p/volodymyr-zelensky-the-jewish-face