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Author : V. Yakunin
Doctor of Science (Political Science), Founding President of the World Public Forum "Dialogue of Civ-
ilizations"
Speech at the international conference "Yalta-Potsdam-
Helsinki-Belgrade: In Search of a Secure World Order,"
Belgrade, Serbia, November 24-25, 2015
A year ago, we spoke about causes of war. Today,
our agenda focuses not on what causes wars but
on what should be done to prevent them.
History provides conclusive evidence that, in effect,
the beneficiaries of large-scale wars have used the
latter as a means of changing the world order. It is
always through war that changes have been made to the world order.
Moreover, all world-order changes have entailed inversions of values and the rejection of estab-
lished philosophical concepts of good and evil.
For the past two decades, changes have been made to at least five world-order paradigms - the
Vienna, Crimea, Frankfurt, Versailles/Washington, and Yalta/Potsdam systems.
All political actors should realize that war cannot be a way to change the current world order.
This implies a methodological challenge for humankind: finding a non-military form of devel-
opment.
Seventy years ago, by joint efforts, the international community defeated the most obvious and
greatest evil in history, fascism. This victory led to a world order whose principles were first for-
mulated in Yalta and then reaffirmed in Potsdam.
One more present-day source of danger are attempts to deny the immeasurable contribution
that some nations made to the victory over fascism, suffering tremendous losses in that fight.
There are countries where the status of a World War II veteran is equally accorded to fascists
and to fighters against fascism. This is absolutely hypocritical and absolutely unacceptable ethi-
cally.
I would also like to emphasize that some of the ideas of Helsinki '75 were ahead of their times.
The Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe is most likely the first
international legal document to use the term "civilization." There is a section in it dealing with
dialogue among civilizations.
There is a Russian saying, "Everything new is actually well-forgotten old." I have deliberately
quoted what may be half-forgotten passages in some documents to make us wonder what future
generations will be saying about us, as President Valery Giscard d'Estaing said today. It doesn't
appear to me to be a new idea to hold a public forum and invite politicians to it to discuss key
modern issues in an informal atmosphere. It's an idea that was proclaimed in Helsinki. But it
Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Yalta, Potsdam and Helsinki: Lessons of History as Reflected in