Between Realpolitik and Utopia
UON Researcher Hans-Lukas Kieser will appear at an international conference on the Balfour Declaration and its impact on global politics.
International conference
Between Realpolitik and Utopia: A Century with the Balfour-Declaration
University of Basel, 1-3 November 2017
Hans-Lukas Kieser from The Centre for the History of Violence, is one of the convenors of an international conference on the Balfour Declaration.
The Balfour Declaration is major stepping stone in the construction of new order of the Middle East after the demise of the Ottoman Empire, but it is also a notion of what Palestine, Europe and the Middle East might and or should – not – have been. The conference will address the various utopian and dystopian aspects and interpretations of the declaration.
The Balfour Declaration has multiplied the projective dimensions of Palestine in the European imagination and has made it part of Europe’s history of identity by embedding the Zionist vision into Western imperial ‘Realpolitik’.
A main rationale of the conference is to argue that the Balfour Declaration is emblematic for how convoluted the two entities are that we still conceive today as ‘Europe’ and the ‘Middle East’.
For an extended abstract of the conference's rationale click here.
This conference will bring together researchers from various disciplines and fields who can contribute to an innovative and responsible thinking on the complex issue of the Balfour Declaration.
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