Informative and contentious: Panel discussion on Putin's war against Ukraine
This year, the alumni association participated in Bremen’s Europe Week through a joint event with the Bremen Parliament: a panel discussion titled "Putin's War on Ukraine – European Policy and Security Architecture". The President of the Bremen Parliament, Frank Imhoff, welcomed around 100 participants to the Bremen Parliament Festsaal on 5 May: "Only two hours by plane from Berlin, there is a war that we imagined could no longer happen in Europe – and an attack on our foundations.” How much this war also affects people here became clear in the discussion, moderated by Christoph Sodemann, between the Bremen historian Wolfgang Eichwede, Member of the Bundestag Thomas Röwekamp and Member of the European Parliament Dr. Joachim Schuster – all alumni of the university. A highly informative evening, emotional and full of controversy.
At the beginning there was a digression into history
How could it be that the Ukrainians and their country have been so little noticed in Germany, even though their history is actually closely linked with Europe? Our perception is shaped by a great-power view of Eastern Europe, said historian Wolfgang Eichwede, founding director of the Research Centre for Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen. "This is not only a question of culture, it was also part of the Prussian and later the Bismarckian-German raison d'état." In addition to its fragile state identity, Ukraine, with its current population of around 40 million, has suffered more than any other country in Europe from an enormous loss of population in the 20th century. More than 25 million people were killed there between 1914 and 1945, including the ruling classes. The extermination of 2.5 million Jews alone was an unimaginable loss for intellectual life in Ukraine.
When should Germany's Russia policy have been reoriented?
At the latest with the occupation of the Donbas and Crimea, European policy should have vigorously opposed [Russia’s actions], said Dr Joachim Schuster, European parliamentarian from Bremen’s SPD. "Nevertheless, I would like to take up a lance for the policy of détente since the 1970s. The policy of 'change through trade' was linked to a strong military component. We should not deviate from this model today, but we should significantly strengthen the deterrence component." There was a broad social consensus that close diplomatic and economic relations with Russia secure peace, added Thomas Röwekamp, CDU member of parliament from Bremen. "That was the biggest mistake of German foreign policy, and it affects not only Putin, but the entire Russian elite."
The political consensus did not go much further
Above all, a fierce dispute arose over the delivery of heavy weapons. Dr Schuster wants none of it and pleaded for restraint and an intensified search for ways to de-escalate. Any further delivery of weapons, he said, would increasingly make Germany a party to the war and risk a further escalation. Mr Röwekamp was appalled that the Bremen SPD MEP, against the resolutions of his party, did not want to help Ukraine with arms deliveries to defend itself against a criminal war. Negotiations with the participation of China – as proposed by Schuster – would be naive: "War criminals do not want to negotiate, nor are freedom, democracy and human rights negotiable.
How can a spiral of escalation be prevented while also breaking Russia's dominance of escalation? Here, too, views diverged. Schuster opposed a rapid and comprehensive energy embargo – as called for by Röwekamp – saying that Europe's unity, which is currently so positive, should not be jeopardised by rushing ahead on this issue, and the question of how long the public will go along with it must also be considered. Enthusiastic contributions from the audience were similarly contentious.
Is there any hope for an early end to this conflict?
"I have no hope," said historian Eichwede. "I expect a long-term conflict, of the sort that I don't know whether we can call it a cold war or whether we are in a pre-war period."
You can listen to an audio recording (only in german)
