Om konferensen i Istanbul 26/9:
“For more than a thousand years, Istanbul has been regarded as a bridge between East and West at the junction of two continents, at the crossroads of the cultures. We wish to make use of this symbol to conduct an open dialogue between the different civilizations of the world.
Harici Media and the new European think tank ‘European Transcontinental Initiative’ (ETI) have launched the East-West Forum (EWF) in Istanbul – a high-level forum of international experts to discuss, analyse and shape this transition.
We want to offer those political thinkers and actors, who represent wisdom in a time of delusion and reason in a time of brinkmanship, a platform for the exchange of critical analysis, hopes and ideas. In doing so, we aim to create an opportunity to jointly develop alternative proposals for a reconfiguration of the global systems that would move beyond the prevailing doxa of a unipolar neoliberal order. Especially we want to prevent the establishment of new bloc confrontation between ‘the West’, the BRICS-countries and the Global South.
The East-West Forum will take place in Istanbul on 26 September 2026. We expect to welcome more than twenty distinguished speakers from over fifteen countries, representing a broad geography ranging from the United States and the Middle East to Asia and Europe.
To attend the East-West Forum, please register online via our website: east-west-forum.com”
En lång rad av de många talarna är sådana som figurerat frekvent här på min sida genom åren.
På hemsidan beskriver EWF sin mission på följande sätt, under rubriken Designing the 21st Century:
“The unipolar world order that emerged after the end of the Cold War has come to an end, and the world is now seeking a redesign of the global system.
The quest for a multipolar world and a balanced world system is accompanied by multiple paradigm shifts: resources shortage, climate stress, overpopulation, trade wars, global rearmament, the AI revolution, the rise of regional wars, the break-down of the UN-system, to just name a few.
The G7/ G20 world tries to find ‘classical’ answers to all of that. Progress is attached to technology only, power assigned exclusively to states and capitalism remains unquestioned.
The East-West Forum (EWF) wants to search for heterodox answers, find new solutions, develop alternative societal & political concepts and think differently. It wants to become, over time, the leading platform for innovative ideas for the global system, thinking the unthinkable and discussing the impossible. We think of citizens and humanity, of soul and history, of traditions and the future. We believe in an economy that serves man and respects nature. We value cultural heritage and the roots of history.
The EWF wants to design a realistic utopia for the world in the 21ˢᵗ century, lifting it outside of the paradigms of the 20ᵗʰ century: Join us in putting everything we know on the table! Help us in designing the peaceful & just world of tomorrow! Dare to leave the thought system…
The EWF brings together distinguished experts, intellectuals, and thought leaders. Istanbul, a city that has long symbolized the bridge between East and West, offers a unique vantage to contribute to a constructive reimagining of relations between the Western countries, the BRICS countries and the Global South. EWF is committed to advancing critical dialogue on an inclusive and sustainable international security architecture, one that complements existing structures while encouraging a broader, more balanced framework for international cooperation. In the long term, the EWF envisions a Europe beyond the EU that is more self-confident, strategically autonomous, and capable of assuming a mediating role within a multipolar world.
The EWF aspires to position itself as a forward-looking counterpart to traditional security conferences typically held in European capitals and sticking to a ‘Western-centric framework’ of interpretation of the world. The initiators of EWF draw inspiration from the oldest known map of Europe, dating to 1534, which looks toward the Orient while standing firmly on Eurasian ground, an emblem of the perspective the Forum seeks to revive and reinterpret for the present era.”
European Transcontinental Initiative
Jan Olof Bengtsson 