Talks and debate

Corona – for some this means home office, for others short-time work and for some the loss of their job! Businesses, administrations, colleges and universities have been able to use and develop the digitalisation skills they have built up over the years, while other sectors have come to a complete standstill, especially in the catering and hotel industries. Does the Corona pandemic act like a burning glass that makes social injustices visible, intensifies and deepens them?

Focus on Afghanistan – in view of the extremely dramatic situation, experts at the University of Osnabrück devoted themselves to the situation in Afghanistan as part of a special format.

Diversity of opinion, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are three sides of the same coin, which is currently on the edge. In addition to pandemic-related assembly bans, disruptions up to and including the paralysis of events, university lectures and seminars have caused resentment. Freedoms long taken for granted have sparked fierce controversy. It is about polarisation to the point of refusing discourse, fears of shifting cultural boundaries (“cancel culture”), pigeonholing and fears of being applauded from the wrong side. It is about tolerance and mutual respect, about debate culture – a topic that touches the idea of the Osnabrück Peace Forum at its core.

Around the world, institutions dedicate themselves to keeping alive the debate on the crimes against humanity committed in the 20th century. Remembrance and historical work on the Shoah and the Second World War faces old and new challenges: How can information be conveyed when there is no one left to give an eyewitness account? How can society foster and sustain the interest of future generation(s)? How can we deal with political influence, and with nationalist or revanchist tendencies? What do the experiences from the “Age of Extremes” mean today and in a globalized world? The guests of Osnabrück Peace Forum discussed these issues and other questions concerning the past and the future of the culture of remembrance.

The debate on climate change, environmental destruction, and resource consumption harbors a wide range of conflicts; between the Global North and the Global South, between social classes and, in particular, between generations. Why is the implementation of the Paris Agreement failing, and is there a genuine danger that future generations will be affected negatively if we fail to tackle climate change?