The East-West Forum, organized together with the Berlin-based European Transcontinental Initiative (ETI) and hosted by Harici Medya at the Akatlar Cultural Center on September 26, brought together leading figures from different continents and different political traditions at the same table in Istanbul. Participants from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America discussed the historical fracture in the global power distribution, the changing character of war and the new security architecture for two days.
The prominent assessment at the forum attended by experts from 30 countries was that the world was rapidly moving away from the Western-centered order established after the Cold War and that new centers of power had now become permanent elements of the global system. Participants pointed out that proxy wars have lowered the threshold for direct conflict between great powers, the risk of nuclear escalation has once again become central to global politics, and artificial intelligence-supported warfare technologies have blurred the boundaries of war.
Thus, the East-West Forum emerged on the scene with the claim that it is not only a conference where current crises are discussed, but also a new international platform where different centers take a direct say on the principles and balance of power on which the changing world order will be shaped.
Opening the conference, Harici Medya Editor-in-Chief Tunç Akkoç said that the forum aims to bring together different political and intellectual traditions on a permanent dialogue basis.
Akkoç said, "Today, we are making a new start together. We are establishing a ground where people with different perspectives can meet and talk. We hope that this first meeting will turn into a tradition that gets stronger every year."
THE GREAT CRISIS ON THE CONTINENT
Prof. made the opening speech on behalf of the European Transcontinental Initiative (ETI), of which he is one of the founders. Dr. Ulrike Guérot emphasized that the global critical community must raise its voice at a time when the world stands on the brink of a third world war.
Referring to Immanuel Kant's "Eternal Peace" thesis and the principle that "all human beings are born free and equal" guaranteed in the 1789 Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter, Guérot said that the missing element in the 21st century is not resources or energy; He said it was diplomacy, wisdom, political will and love.
Stating that the social and peaceful European ideals of the era of Jacques Delors, François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl have been distorted today, Guérot stated that he is the voice of the silent majority of Europe that does not want war with Russia and opposes being sacrificed to American geostrategic interests.
Guérot, a German citizen, recalled the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines and said that the German public, whose critical infrastructure was destroyed by its former ally and whose government remained silent about it, was deeply disturbed.
Guérot summarized the nihilism that Europe had fallen into, referring to the French poet Raymond Queneau:
"Europe is dangerous, but not because of its power, but because of the weakness it cannot accept. It chooses to escalate the war in order not to face its own political failure and guilt. As the European Transcontinental Initiative, we have two basic mottos: a Europe beyond the European Union and a Europe for a multipolar world. Turkey plays a key role in this balance."
Upon completion of the opening speech, Guérot announced that the forum would meet regularly in Istanbul in the third week of September every year.
After Tunç Akkoç's thank you speech, the forum's first general assembly session titled "Transforming World: Multipolarity and the End of the Liberal Order" began. Guérot moderated the panel with American academician Prof. He opened with a quote from Pilkington's newly published book "The End of the Liberal Order".
Guérot presented the following observation to the participants' discussion:
"Today, liberalism as an ideology is interpreted along American lines. That is, it is basically defined in terms of a certain variant of liberalism that has been built over time in the United States and developed especially as this country came to the fore in the post-World War II period."
"FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF DOMINATION HAS ENDED"
Director of the China Institute of Fudan University and former translator of China's historical leader Deng Xiaoping, Prof. Zhang Weiwei stated that the multipolar structure has been confirmed by economic data.
Pointing out that the total economic size of the BRICS countries surpasses the G7 countries in gross domestic product calculations based on purchasing power parity, Zhang emphasized that this indicator proves that five hundred years of Western domination is over.
Zhang said, "In our world of thought, an actor is either a friend or a potential friend. We do not have the West's 'you are either a friend or an enemy' distinction that drags the world into disaster. Chinese diplomacy avoids military coercion; it is based on harmony instead of domination and equality instead of imposition."
"EUROPE HAS TURNED INTO A LOGISTICS BASE"
Southeastern Norway University Lecturer Prof. Dr. Glenn Diesen said that the undivided Pan-European security architecture promised by the 1990 Paris Charter was deliberately sacrificed for the sake of NATO's eastern expansion. Stating that this policy that excludes Russia has put the continent in a spiral of conflict, Diesen stated that the principle of indivisibility of security is disregarded.
Stating that European capitals transferred their strategic responsibilities to Washington, Diesen said, "This approach, which destroyed its own energy lines, signed sanctions that put its industry in trouble, and rejected diplomacy, turned Europe from a global actor into the logistics base of the trans-Atlantic."
THE COVER OF US HEGEMONY
Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible State Management, stated that the phrase "rules-based international order", which Western governments keep talking about, is a diplomatic cover hiding American hegemony. Lieven stated that the rules were set by Washington itself and were broken by Washington when its interests required it, and that this arbitrariness destroyed sovereign equality.
President of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs Prof. Jagannath Panda explained that the rise of Asian powers has shaken the representation ability of the United Nations Security Council.
Stating that the exclusion of a power like India with a population of over 1.5 billion from permanent decision-making processes erodes the legitimacy of the entire system, Panda noted that New Delhi maintains its strategic autonomy and that Asian countries have the diplomatic maturity to resolve their border disputes through direct negotiations.
IMPORTANT ROLE OF ANKARA
Başkent University Faculty Member and Director of the Center for New World Studies, Prof., chaired the second session of the forum titled "Out of Control Escalation: Preventing a Destructive World War, Institutionalizing a New Order Together in a Peaceful Way". Dr. Hasan Ünal emphasized that the liquidation of diplomacy brought global peace to a dangerous threshold.
Stating that the polarization between the West and the Global South and BRICS has created an uncontrolled escalation, Ünal said that in this period when arms control agreements are abolished and artificial intelligence-supported systems come into play, medium-sized powers such as Turkey play a vital role in balance.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ALGORITHMS
Tsinghua University International Security and Strategy Center Expert, retired colonel Zhou Bo, stated that unmanned systems and artificial intelligence algorithms reduce decision-making times to seconds, which maximizes the risk of military miscalculation and lowers the nuclear threshold.
Stating that the great powers must immediately agree on the rules that control modern warfare technologies, Zhou warned that otherwise a dystopian disaster would occur.
Retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel and Defense Priorities expert Daniel Davis stated that the security bureaucracy in Washington has made the mistake of seeing military force as the only solution to every problem.
Stating that the proxy wars extending from Ukraine to the Middle East have brought nuclear powers closer to the limit of direct confrontation, Davis pointed out that a similar blind diplomatic deadlock was experienced before the First World War.
Davis emphasized that the American defense industry constantly expands its budget by creating new enemies, that unlimited interventionism harms the American people, and that the sovereignty boundaries of the UN Charter should be returned to.
Member of the European Parliament and former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Michael von der Schulenburg said that the European Union has been dragged into a dangerous military escalation trap, and voices advocating peace negotiations have been marginalized.
Stating that the Brussels bureaucracy is militarizing the continent by ignoring the will of the people, Schulenburg noted that the principles of the UN Charter should be strengthened and made the main pillar of the multipolar world.
SANCTIONS AND RUSSIA
Alexander Shenderyuk-Zhidkov, Kaliningrad Representative of the Russian Federation Council and First Deputy Chairman of the Budget and Financial Markets Committee, stated that attempts to isolate Russia from the global economy have failed, and trade routes and financial payment lines are directed towards Asia and the Global South.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, former Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Representative and President of the Vienna International Institute of Middle East Studies, emphasized that foreign military bases in the Middle East are the main source of instability. Stating that regional security cannot be established through external interventions, Soltanieh noted that infrastructure projects such as the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement and joint water treatment facilities can be implemented on the basis of diplomatic dialogue between Tehran and Riyadh.
Roger Köppel, owner of Switzerland-based Die Weltwoche magazine and former parliamentarian, criticized Switzerland's harming the historical principle of neutrality by participating in unilateral sanctions; He said that peace can be maintained not by arms shipments, but by impartial mediation mechanisms.
"EUROPE HAS BEEN BREAKED AWAY FROM ITS PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS"
The third session, titled "Europe Beyond the EU and Its Philosophical Foundations: Atlanticism, Eurasia and Strategic Autonomy", was moderated by researcher Isabelle Casel.
Philosopher of history Dr. Hauke Ritz said that European civilization moved away from humanism and Enlightenment ideals and surrendered to the absolute dominance of the market and technology.
Ritz noted that uncontrolled artificial intelligence and genetic engineering can be restrained by the combination of Eastern wisdom and European humanism.
Economist Thomas Fazi stated that the European Union liquidated the social state-based mixed economy model for the sake of capital domination, and that Brussels and Frankfurt-based structures turned into oligarchic mechanisms that violate democratic will.
Fazi stated that real strategic autonomy will be possible by regaining the economic sovereignty of the state.
University of Belgrade Lecturer Prof. Dr. Dragana Mitrovic stated that East Asia has become the center of global manufacturing and trade and that China's Belt and Road Initiative connects to Europe through the Balkans, and emphasized that Brussels should remove ideological obstacles.
French analyst Georges Kuzmanovic said that France has moved away from the Gaullist line of independence and has become completely dependent on US logistics in the field of defense.
He stated that Europe, which handed over its data and communication networks to American technology companies, cannot make independent decisions without establishing its digital sovereignty.
Session commentator Walter Komarek added that energy pipelines and railways in Eurasia are concrete guarantees of peace.
GAZA AND THE RULESLESS WARS OF THE FUTURE
Forum's Dr. In its last session, chaired by Pascal Lottaz, regional proxy wars were discussed.
Gaza-born researcher and human rights advocate Muhammad Shehada stated that the destruction in the region exceeds the limit of local conflict and said, "The genocide in Gaza is not a local incident. We act as the canary in the coal mine; we inform the whole world about whose turn it will be and how the wars of the future will be waged."
Stating that artificial intelligence-supported targeting and surveillance systems target all civilians in Gaza, Shehada stated that the Israeli army is destroying families by monitoring the mobile phone signals of young children.
Referring to the double standards of Western governments, Shehada said that a senior European official told him, "In the mornings, we send food and bandages to the people of Gaza; in the afternoons, we provide bombs to the Israelis to throw into civilian settlements."
University of Kent Emeritus Professor Richard Sakwa noted that today's crises arose from the unresolved contradictions of 1945, and that the Second Cold War was more dangerous because it lacked ideological clarity and rules.
Andrew Day, senior editor of The American Conservative, said the American public disapproves of Washington elites' endless military adventures and war policies, particularly focused on Iran.
Waseda University Chair Prof. Abdullah Baabood stated that Gulf countries can establish their own domestic security systems without foreign intervention and that normalization between Tehran and Riyadh is a vital step in this direction.
FIVE BASIC DECISIONS FOR INSTITUTIONALIZATION
At the working breakfast held on the morning of September 27, following the closing of the forum, participants agreed to transform the initiative into a permanent international network. At the meeting, the five-item action plan was announced to the public:
