Debating Europe: Obama and the Europeans. What has changed?
Politics
Burgtheater, Vienna, 28.2.2010
Die Aufzeichnung kam mit freundlicher Unterstützung von Digitalkameraverleih zustande.
etalks.tv has been kindly supported by Digitalkameraverleih.
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Chair:
- Alexandra Föderl-Schmid (Editor-in-Chief, Der Standard) – Bio
Speakers:
- Stanley Greenberg (Political scientist) – Bio
- Robert Kagan (US publicist and columnist, The Washington Post) – Bio
- Karel Schwarzenberg (former Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic; former President of the European Council) – Bio
- Michael Spindelegger (Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria) – Bio
- Ivan Vejvoda (Executive Director, Balkan Trust for Democracy) – Bio
Series: Europa im Diskurs / Debating Europe
“Yes, we can!” Barack Obama triumphally exclaimed as the new US President elect in November 2008. With “change” as the keyword of his electoral campaign he had become the symbol of hope for millions to both sides of the Atlantic. Little more than a year later, many ask, “Can he?” With such problematic issues as the reform of US health care, the closing down of Guantánamo, battling the economic crisis, solving the Middle East conflict and global climate protection on his To Do list, it is a debatable point if he “can”. Upon being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after only nine months in office even Barack Obama himself doubted that he deserved it, emphasising that he considered the award a call to action.
Vienna’s Burgtheater is the stage where US policy adviser Stanley Greenberg, Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan, Austria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Spindelegger, Czech politician Karel Schwarzenberg and Ivan Vejvoda from the German Marshall Fund discuss about “Obama and the Europeans – what has changed?”
(Presstext: http://www.iwm.at/)
The Series Europa im Diskurs / Debating Europe is a cooperation of the Institute for Human Sciences, Der Standard, the ERSTE Stiftung and Burgtheater.
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obama should stop bowing to foreign leaders every time they meet. They should meet as equals.
Great debate! But I don’t think that the fact that Europeans despise war results in a threat to world peace
I think that this is a social achievement after fighting two world wars to be fed up with killing each other!