Thinking about war & peace: Fighting for Peace

• Date: 12 May
• Time 19:30 - 21:00
• Location: Club Erasmus in de KB nationale bibliotheek

In the run-up to the NATO summit on June 24-25 in The Hague, the KB is organizing three sessions on the broader theme of war and peace. The rapid developments surrounding NATO and European defense call for further exploration. In these sessions, we will place these developments in a historical context.

Guest speakers and KB collection specialists will join the audience in exploring some recurring themes in the long history of thinking about peace and war. What is peace? How can war be prevented? And when do we feel safe?

All sessions can be attended separately. There will be opportunities to ask questions during the sessions and at the drinks reception afterwards.

Session 1: Fighting for Peace

From Erasmus to Immanuel Kant and Bertha von Suttner: for centuries, people have been thinking about how to banish war. Many of these ideas first took shape in The Hague and have made the city famous worldwide. The Peace Palace is proof of that.

Guest speaker Benjamin Duerr will take you back to this extraordinary time. He is a writer, diplomat, and lawyer, as well as the author of De droom van Den Haag: De Haagse Vredesconferenties en het ontstaan van een nieuwe wereldorde (The Dream of The Hague: The Hague Peace Conferences and the Emergence of a New World Order), which was shortlisted for the Libris History Prize.

Collection specialist Esther van Gelder will use unique items from the collection to show how every call for armament and war was met with radical pacifist opposition.

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