Event Recordings

This keynote lecture by Jan Kubik puts in perspective global trends in mobilization. Starting from the current Polish situation, it will reflect on four interrelated issues: the relationship between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms of mobilization, the role of mobilization resources, the intensifying mythologization of right-wing discourses, and the dilemmas of liberal counter-mobilizations.

Climate change is already having a serious impact on Russia's environment. While the international climate movement is now also finding supporters among Russian youth, some Russian politicians and scientists emphasize the positive aspects of warming for the country. We want to build on this Russian debate and discuss young people's commitment to climate change.

The protests against the rigged presidential elections and the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashchenka quickly developed into a mass mobilization in Belarus. Images play an important role in this mobilisation. In a conversation with photographers from Belarus and political scientists, we want to illustrate how images influenced the protests.

Films make history. But films also interpret history, and sometimes, they shift the emphasis. Political scientist Félix Krawatzek talked to film-makers about how and in which context certain historical events have taken centre stage in recent cinematography while others have drifted to the margins of our collective consciousness.

In the conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh, both Armenia, and Azerbaijan view the other as an enemy with very similar rhetoric reinforcing demonisation of each other. The virtual “Conversation with...” starts a series of discussions focused on challenges and possibilities of living together and living with difference as part of civil protest.

Despite the repeated official statements about us all “being in this together”, the inequalities with regard to capabilities to maintain safety and necessary wellbeing could hardly be more glaring in our quarantined societies. A panel discussion with Maksym Butkevych, Altynay Kambekova, Estela Schindel and Gwendolyn Sasse.

Belarus plans to hold presidential elections on 9 August 2020 despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time in many years, along with opposition figures, representatives from the ruling elite intend to run in the election. The online event in cooparation with the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE) focuses on the current situation in Belarus.

This ZOiS Online Event held on 22 April, looked on Belarus’ handling of the Corona pandemic crisis, which has raised severe criticism domestically and evoked astonishment by external observers. Official data is met with civic disbelief and stands in stark contrast to the accounts of individual activists and medics.

The world looked hopefully to the events of 1989. However, the euphoria of the 1990s gradually gave way to disillusionment. In his lecture, Thomas Carothers asks whether the expectations were too optimistic. What blame can be attached to the political mistakes of the West, and what lessons can be drawn from 1989?

Has liberalism become a victim of its own success? In his talk, Ivan Krastev gives some insights into the forthcoming book he co-authored with Stephen Holmes: "The Light that Failed: How the West Won the Cold War and Lost the Peace". The keynote lecture was part of the ZOiS Conference 2019 "30 Years since 1989: The Legacies of Post-Socialism", held on 14 June 2019 in Berlin.