Description

In the autumn of 2015 the Dutch-English publicist Ian Buruma gave direction to the thinker's programme 'The End of Postwar', organised by the Flemish Royal Academy. The programme was triggered by Buruma's publication Year zero: a history of 1945, which focuses on the coming into being of a new global order in the aftermath of World War Two. The birth of a welfare state and the European unification process were its two most remarkable achievements. Both, however, have been under constant pressure since the beginning of the 21st century. Two workshops and a two-day symposium brought together thinkers from the scientific, cultural and political worlds in order to reflect on the central theme of 'The end of postwar: which future for Europe?'. This collection of essays reflects the debates, which dealt with issues such as the re-invention of the welfare state, the breach of the postwar consensus, the durability of humanism and the role of a United Europe as an answer to history.