to join us for what promises to be a stimulating evening of discussion on democracy, Europe and international cooperation in a rapidly changing world!
How can democracies preserve their strategic agency while upholding their normative foundations in an era of global systemic competition? Where does pragmatic cooperation remain viable, and where must firm ethical boundaries be drawn? With these questions, this year’s Helmut Schmidt Lecture turns to one of the defining challenges of our time: how Europe and open societies can navigate an increasingly volatile world without surrendering their core principles.
Monday, 16 November, 7 pm
Museum für Kommunikation Berlin
Leipziger Straße 16
10117 Berlin
The evening begins with welcome remarks by Peer Steinbrück, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung (BKHS). Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, will then deliver his lecture, “The Politics of the Last Man: Why Demographic Anxiety Is Reshaping Our Democracies, and Our Alliances.” He examines why anxieties about demographic decline and political “disappearance” have become so central to contemporary politics. While nuclear war, climate change, pandemics and artificial intelligence provoke different emotional and political responses, demographic fear strikes at the cultural mechanisms through which societies make mortality bearable—transforming personal anxiety into collective political mobilisation. When politics becomes a struggle for survival, compromise can appear to be surrender and cooperation becomes harder, both within the European Union and with its partners. Speaking to this year’s theme of “Navigating Power and Principles!”, Krastev asks what this means for Europe’s ability to cooperate with governments that turn the fear of disappearing into illiberal politics—and whether a shared community of democracies can still be meaningfully spoken of.
Following the lecture, Maria Kotsev, journalist and editor for international politics at Der Tagesspiegel and host of the GenEast podcast, will moderate a conversation between Ivan Krastev, Dr. Tim Heinkelmann-Wild of LMU Munich, and Alisa Rieth of the BKHS. While Heinkelmann-Wild will address the challenges facing multilateral cooperation and the international order, Rieth will bring in perspectives on youth and democracy education in Europe. Together, they will discuss how democrats—and especially younger generations, for whom the erosion of the liberal order is lived experience rather than historical rupture—navigate the tension between values, security interests and power politics.
The evening will also mark the launch of the sixth issue of the BKHS Magazine, “Navigating Power and Principles!”, presented by managing editor Fiona Kramer and this year’s BKHS Fellow, Alexander Lipke. The BKHS Magazine #6 offers further perspectives on these questions through contributions from politics, business, civil society and academia, including German business executive and adviser Janina Kugel and David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and former UK Foreign Secretary.
At the closing reception, we look forward to continuing the conversation. The exhibition “Helmut Schmidt International – Germany, Europe and the World” invites guests to reflect on the conditions for safeguarding freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
