Participants

Lena Dallywater¹; Dennis Dierks³; Chris Saunders²; Derya Bozat⁵; Katja Castryck-Naumann⁴;  ¹ Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Germany;  ² University of Cape Town, South Africa;  ³ Leipzig University, Germany;  ⁴ GWZO Leipzig, Germany;  ⁵ University of Bern , Switzerland

Discussion

In the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it is not only societies in Eastern Europe that have been shaken up. The war of aggression has also had a variety of effects globally. How are these ruptures described and interpreted? This is the question that the guests in the round table discussion will address. Based on the 8-year work of the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Eastern Europe – Global Area" (EEGA), an interdisciplinary research network in Germany, panellists from political studies, history and geography will shed light on polarisations, re-territorialisations and narrative account of the crisis. With a view to a comparison, transregionally and historically, the disruptions in Eastern Europe and Southern Africa in the late 20th and early 21st centuries are contrasted. Speakers will reflect on the similarities and differences between the two cases of countries that moved from authoritarian rule to democratic systems on the one hand, and how contemporary thinkers engage with ideas of postcolonialism and decoloniality (aiming to expose and understand the asymmetrical power relations between the West and the non-European world that emerged during the period of colonial rule and continue to exist today), and how this relates to interpretations of the war in Ukraine and global power relations on the other hand.

Dennis Dierks, Leipzig University
Disruption of World Order? Rethinking Globality In Times of War on Ukraine
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has triggered a global debate about the consequences of this war for the international order, the globalised world economy, questions of global power distribution, but also for tasks that can only be solved internationally, such as combating climate change. The aim of a project at the University of Leipzig, to be completed in spring 2025, is to understand and explain the polyphony of this debate. To this end, a collection of sources will be published that aims to reveal important trajectories of these debates. The talk will discuss the challenges of this endeavour, but also the opportunities for new insights into current debates on globality it provides.

Chris Saunders, University of Cape Town
Disruptions compared: Eastern Europe and Southern Africa in the late 20th century

Drawing upon in-depth research I have done on the transitions in Southern Africa in the late twentieth century, and relevant literature on the transitions in Eastern and Central Europe, this paper offers reflections on the similarities and differences between the two cases of countries that moved from authoritarian rule to democratic systems: how and why the transitions occurred and why they had different outcomes. In particular, the role of violence – often downplayed in the Southern African case – will be contrasted, with mostly peaceful transitions in Eastern Europ