To begin with, I would like to congratulate the Schiller Institute for organizing this conference at a critical moment, when the threat of a nuclear war which would lead to the extinction of humanity becomes clearer by the day, because of the concentration in the heart of Europe of weapons capable of destroying the planet within seconds…

I’m going to use three metaphors, and I’m going to teach you three questions to ask, to come to the conclusion that war must not be a means of politics any more. So that’s the bottom line. I use metaphors, because I have learned that’s the best way to get adults to learn without them knowing that they’re learning…

In Europe, in America, and in parts of Asia there is a sense of foreboding—an elemental unease about what is to come. There is vexing drift amidst political paralysis. Demagoguery is ascendant and the stench of fascism is in the air…

I think we all have come to this conference because everybody who is in this room knows that we are experiencing an absolutely unprecedented, systemic and existential crisis of civilization. We have the coincidence of a war danger, where NATO is confronting Russia in a very, very aggressive fashion—which could lead to a Third World War…