This international conference took place at the Austrian Parliament. The welcome addresses were given by Barbara Prammer (President of the Austrian National Council), Werner Faymann (Federal Chancellor of Austria), Anne Brasseur (President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) and Martin Schulz (President of the European Parliament). The conference was chaired by Heinz Gärtner (oiip), Markus Kornprobst (Dipl Academy of Vienna) and Gerda Falkner (University of Vienna). The keynote speaker was Bruce Russett (Yale University). Discussants included Adrian Hyde-Price (University of Bath), Harald Müller and Simone Wisotzki (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt); Jan Willem Honig (King´s College, London), Florence Gaub (EU Institute for Security Studies, Paris), Terrence Hopmann (Johns Hopkins University, Washington), Cengiz Günay (oiip), Ulrich Brand (University of Vienna). Concluding remarks: Harald Dossi (Secretary General of the Austrian Parliament).
The oiip has successfully held the international conference titled “1914 – The Collapse of a Peace Order: Is Democratic Peace an Alternative?” jointly with and in the premises of the Austrian Parliament. As 2014 marks the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, the event focused on factors that contribute to international peace and stability. It discussed and highlighted the relationship between democracy and peace alongside a number of other factors such as economic interdependence and international institutions. A summary of the conference will soon be available on oiip’s website at http://www.oiip.ac.at.