Salzburg Global Seminar: The big picture

It was 1947 when a group of thinkers from different cultures and professions first convened in Salzburg, Austria to develop strategies for change in the aftermath of World War II.

After so many years of war and so much destruction, it was a time to reflect on the best way to move beyond the hatreds that caused the war, a reconstruction of the foundations of art, culture and ideas needed to occur that would help the world navigate the way forward.

That gathering in 1947 became known as the Salzburg Global Seminar and it continues through to today.

I spent a week at the seminar in Salzburg, Austria this summer. Coming home to see the U.S. consumed by the debt crisis in Washington and the chaotic ride on Wall Street that has followed and all the distractions of daily life in a time of uncertainty, it is easy to lose the big picture which the Salzburg seminar offers.

And that is the time for students, scholars, journalists, judges and professionals from many different to reflect on big, challenging issues of the day: the inherent inequalities of the global economy; the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; the Arab Spring; climate change; global media and the digital revolution; and human rights.

It’s a running dialogue that looks to the future.

One morning at the seminar, I had the chance to ask the president of the Salzburg Global Seminar, Stephen Salyer, whether we might be in a "post-war" moment in contemporary history that can be compared to 1947.

The struggles we face today are very different and the “war on terror” is in no way comparable to the enormity of World War II. There is, of course, nowhere near the destruction and the loss of life caused by the military ambitions of Germany and Japan. And because of the nature of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, we will never really have that 1947 "end of the war" moment that started the Salzburg Global Seminar. So perhaps we’ll have to find our own turning point.

Read the rest of this column here.