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On 2nd of March the weather was beautiful in Brussels, but what was more interesting to watch was the “Conflict Prevention and Resolution: the Role of Cultural Relations” international conference organized by SDA in cooperation with NATO and British Concil . The event took place at the Bibliotheque Solvay and hosted a large number of speakers and international participants.
The event kicked off with the speech of Giles Merritt,Co-Founder & Director of the Security & Defence Agenda, expressing his worries that simple cultural dialog would not be the unique solution in resolving conflicts. Also, a very good question was risen, and that is, what do we understand by culture and how exactly will this apply in the management of current and future conflicts.
Some case studies were presented that seems to give hope on one hand, and on the other to demonstrate that culture plays a key role in every society and can lift or destroy a nation. A very good example of this is the project lead by George Gachara named Picha Mtaani
where street exhibitions and audio-visual presentations were used to raise awareness and to challenge the Kenyan society to reconciliation.
Mr. Giles Merritt concluded, I might say, on a rather concerning note, stating again that we still have a long way until this ideas will be included in actual policies and that EU and NATO create a strong potential force that is not being used at it’s most.
This made me think that AEGEE has a huge potential as a promoter of dialog and understanding and done a good job in the past, in my opinion. I know that in times of peace this might sound like just another good-sounding phrase to use when you apply for a YiA grant, but let’s not forget that Europe was divided for so much time and only trough projects like this we will be able to not allow the history to repeat.
I believe that this should be a topic to reflect upon, when organizing future CWG events for example and will make for a good set of workshops in your next event.