How Peace Works

How does peace come about – in a world full of war and conflict? This question was at the center of a panel dis­cussion with Jonas Wolff, ZDF special corres­pondent Katrin Eigen­dorf, docu­mentary filmmaker Carl Gierstorfer, and political scientist and political influencer Nina Poppel (@ninierklärtpolitik) at Schlachthof Wiesbaden. The event was modera­ted by ZDF’s head of politics and Auslands­journal host Sha­kuntala Baner­jee. 

The pane­lists discussed how wars and conflicts can be ended long term, how new ones can be pre­vented – and how people world­wide can find ways out of violence, trauma, and division. Topics included what peace actually means, what role established international norms and institutions (still) play, and whether the answer to the question of how we can achieve peace has changed. The guests also dis­cussed how the youn­ger ge­neration views the current global situation. The au­dience was actively en­gaged through short polls and the oppor­tunity to ask questions. 

Reasson for the event was the re­lease of the two-part ZDF docu­mentary series “So geht Frieden,” in which Katrin Eigen­dorf and Carl Giers­torfer travel to nine countries and meet people who expe­rience conflicts and wars in very different ways and work to build peace. Ex­cerpts from the series were shown during the evening. 

The livestream of the event and the documentary series are available for free on YouTube and in the ZDF media library (in German).