Willy Brandt Lecture 2020

Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), will deliver the 2020 Willy Brandt Lecture. Since its founding in 2007, over 500 non-governmental organisations have joined this alliance with the purpose of implementing a legally binding international prohibition of atomic weapons. For its efforts to that end, in 2017 ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Not even the end of the Cold War has eliminated the danger of a nuclear catastrophe. There are currently more than 13,000  nuclear weapons  around the globe. In many nations new nuclear weapons’ programmes have been started, and international accords to contain them have become frail in light of new conflicts and a turning away from multilateralism. In addition, the New Start Treaty, designed to limit the USA’s and Russia’s nuclear potentials, will expire in February 2021. Will we still be able to avoid a new spiralling arms race? With regard to this question, Beatrice Fihn sees Germany as also being a responsible player. Like all other NATO countries, the Federal Republic is not a signatory to the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Each year an outstanding personality from the fields of politics, science, economics or culture is invited to deliver the Willy Brandt Lecture. In the spirit of Willy Brandt, the Lecture addresses issues that are of pivotal significance for understanding our history and shaping.