Past & present

In this debate Jörg Monar (DE), rector of the College of Europe, the German ambassador Rüdiger Lüdeking (DE), College of Europe professor Olivier Costa (FR), College student Gavin Dewar (UK) will speak with Standaard journalist Bart Brinckman. The discussion will center on the impact of WW I on today’s political and diplomatic reality. How do politics and diplomacy today reckon with the evolved insights into the strategies that have failed back then. Threaded throughout the conversation will be interventions by two art experts, dr. Jan Christiaens and Senior Full Professor English Literature Marysa Demoor (UGent), who will speak about art influenced by the horror and emotions of the war. They will explore the way artists translated the experiences of WW I into works of art. Their contributions will be illustrated by a fragment from Britten’s War Requiem and some text by the War Poets.