The following is an edited transcript of the March 4, 2026, weekly Schiller Institute dialogue with Schiller Institute founder and leader Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Subheads have been added. The video is available here.

Harley Schlanger: Hello and welcome to our weekly dialogue with Helga Zepp-LaRouche. She’s the founder of the Schiller Institute and the convener of the International Peace Coalition. Today is March 4, 2026. I’m Harley Schlanger and I’ll be your host.

Well, Helga, since we last spoke, the President of the United States [Donald Trump], who pledged he would not start a war, has started a war; with the intention, he said, of carrying out a regime change, which he also said he would not do. There’s much controversy over this internationally and we’ll discuss this in some detail, but let’s start with the big picture. You warned that this could be the beginning of World War III.

Where do things stand now, on the fifth day of the war, and what can be done to bring an early end to what otherwise might be an endless war?

Helga Zepp-LaRouche: We are experiencing right now a catastrophic new phase in international relations, which is characterized by the fact that international law has ceased to exist. We now have a situation where the principle of might makes right, whoever can do what they can do will do it, is obviously governing international politics. I cannot think of anything as serious in my lifetime, where all the rules, all the diplomacy, all the ideas that there is something right and wrong have been thrown out of the window.

Already now, unbelievable suffering has been caused by this in the Middle East. The Iranian population is in a state of terror, and is very far from rising up against the government, even though that possibility is still being mooted by the Western media. In fact, the opposite has happened, after the cold-blooded assassination of the Supreme Leader Khamenei, who has now become in the eyes of not only the people of Iran, but also many other Muslims all over the world, a martyr. The assassination of Khamenei can only be compared to what would be the situation if the highest representative of the Christian religion would have been killed, the Pope. So, we are in a situation where—despite the fact that I’ve been involved in politics for a very long time—you can’t find words anymore to try to comprehend how absolutely reckless international politics has become.

Now, it’s very difficult to judge exactly where we are militarily, because the Western narrative naturally says that the Iranian air force already has been wiped out and the Iranian navy has been wiped out. But other more trustworthy analysts are saying that Iran has deliberately pulled back from launching some of its missiles. And given the fact that Iran is a country where there are 45,000 mountains, there may be numerous underground facilities where many bombs and missiles are being hidden, so it’s very difficult to judge this.

But what one can say is that we have a condition of absolute, brutal lawlessness, where the United States and Israel have basically started a process which I think is only restrained by the seemingly limitless patience of Russia and China, so that the situation is still not completely out of control. For example, it seems that [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has been conducting numerous phone calls with the leaders of the states in the Gulf region, offering Russian mediation, because Russia at this point is the only state which still has relations with all of the participants. So, there is a certain minimum element of hope in that.

Spain Takes a Stand Against War

But otherwise, [German] Chancellor [Friedrich] Merz just went to the United States to meet with President Trump and basically fully endorsed what the United States had done, putting himself in total contradiction to Prime Minister [Pedro] Sánchez of Spain, who has refused to give access for joint American-Spanish bases in Spain to be used for this operation. This [Sánchez’s response] naturally caused a very angry response from Trump, who threatened to cut off all economic relations with Spain—and Merz, in a certain sense, did not fully support that [cutting all economic relations with Spain—ed.]. But the unity of the European Union is definitely gone as well.

This is an extremely serious situation, and it just so happened that we had already scheduled the second meeting of the initiative which we started on January 12.

This initiative calls for the formation of an international alliance of people demanding a return to international law, to put the idea of a completely new security and development architecture on the table, which must be absolutely inclusive, respecting the interests of every country on the planet. This would require the creation of an international movement of world citizens; of people who take the interests of the One Humanity first.

We had a very important meeting to this effect on January 12, and it just happened to be that we had scheduled for this Monday, March 2, the second such meeting. And that came basically two days or three days after the beginning of the war against Iran. So naturally, this meeting focused on that; and I can only urge all of you, our present listeners and viewers, to go to the website and look at this conference. Because we are absolutely on the mark by trying to rally forces internationally to say that we cannot accept this present development—because it could lead to an Armageddon of the whole world. So, go and join this effort, become an active member of this coalition to try to save international law by establishing a new architecture altogether.

Schlanger: The topic of the emergency summit of experts you were just talking about was the urgent need for a cultural renaissance; it was titled, “Epstein and the Bottomless Depravity of the Elites.” And we did get a question from a supporter who asks, “I would like to know why you identified the plunge into war as an issue of culture.”

Zepp-LaRouche: Because it has to do with the image of man. It is very clear—and that’s why we connected it to the [Jeffrey] Epstein scandal—that at least a good section of the ruling elites in different countries have engaged in their private sexual life in a degree of depravity which is criminal. I mean, if you misuse juveniles, young women, underage girls, and as reports go, even small children and babies, that shows that you are—I wouldn’t call it an animal, because no animal does this kind of thing; even a beast does not do that—you are a depraved creature who has no respect for the dignity of other human beings. You’re using them as tools for your own perverted pleasure. And once you have such a mindset as that, it is characteristic of an oligarchical way of thinking, which goes back thousands of years to the idea of empire; to the idea that you have an oligarchy which can get away with everything.

This was the mindset of the Roman Empire; the idea that you can kill slaves if you are up to it. That was what was described by Friedrich Schiller in his extremely important writing about “The Legislation of Lycurgus and Solon,” where he describes that Sparta, the state of Lycurgus, liked to kill helots (which was another name for slaves) whenever they thought there were too many. And if you are willing to dispose of other human beings in that way, why would you not then do the same thing in wars? We have seen the same mindset in Gaza now for more than two years. We have seen it in numerous other situations.

Two Images of Man

This mindset shows, that in light of such an absolutely disgusting depravity, you have only two possibilities: One is, you adapt and you become like them; or, you say, no, this is all the more reason why we have to answer that with the most noble idea of man you can possibly think of, which you can find in all cultures and civilizations, in the highest form of poetry, philosophy, and other forms of Classical art, like Classical music. We have to rally around the noble idea of humanity if we want to prevent its plunging into the abyss.

I never gave up my belief in the most beautiful idea of man; of being a creative human being capable, by the act of free will, of developing all the potentialities to do beautiful things: become an artist, a composer, a painter, a poet, a scientist, an inventor. That is the true nature of humanity, and that is why we have called, with this conference on Monday, to form and create such a new renaissance, whereby the best expressions of all cultures get into a dialogue with each other, to create a new, more beautiful conception of man than ever before. And that is the task on the table, because we cannot leave it to the depraved ruling elites who are threatening the very existence of humanity.

Schlanger: Helga, I can tell you, some of the emails I received demonstrate the effects of psychological warfare and pro-war propaganda. For example, one person writes: “I was once a supporter of Mr. LaRouche and your organization, but I can’t believe that the LaRouche movement doesn’t support Trump’s war against Iran’s terrorist regime.” How would you answer that?

Zepp-LaRouche: This person may have been a supporter of LaRouche and at that point clearly was sane. But with your present words, I can only say you are so utterly brainwashed that you should really go to a friendly doctor and find out why this is the case. The narrative that Iran has committed all of these crimes is— Go to the American analysts from Larry Johnson to Judge Napolitano to Scott Ritter to Colonel Macgregor, or go to German analysts. For example, there is a professor, Jonas Tögel, a scientist who just refuted the whole thing and explained the mechanism of how this propaganda works.

The reality is, Persia—that’s Iran—is a civilization more than 3,000 years old. Iranians have the proud idea of being one of the greatest civilizations. And while you may not agree with the regime—I don’t even want to call it that—with the government of the religious leadership— And one could argue that theocracies are not exactly the form of government one should try to have, but you cannot forget the fact that the whole history, starting with the nationalist move from [Mohammed] Mossadegh, who ruled from 1951 to ’53, democratically voted for and elected, was overthrown by the CIA and MI6. Then the Shah [Mohammad Reza Pahlavi] was imposed, and he became unbearable because of what he did to his own people. That led to the [Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini revolution [in 1979]. You can disagree with that, but the change of government should be left to the Iranian people.

Iranians Rally Against Satanic Evil

And you can see right now, nobody in Iran is following the call by the West to overthrow their government. The opposite has happened. The people of Iran have rallied behind the present leadership, because they realize that something extraordinary, what you could even call satanic, is going on—and I’m not exaggerating that, because we now have extremely disturbing reports, which come from an institution called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. According to several people we consulted on that, they are completely reliable. They report that in the last several days, they have received extremely disturbing calls from [U.S.] military officers, who all report that they are being told that this is now a holy war against Islam, and that this is supposed to be Armageddon; that the final days of time have come, and that the early return of Christ is on the agenda. If this kind of religious fundamentalism, which is prevalent among some of the American Christian religious right, and also among some of the Zionist element, if this is [what’s driving the war], then there is no more rationality, and we are in for an unbelievable— I mean, if you have religious warfare on that level, including the potential [use] of nuclear weapons, I think people better take this seriously.

And I’m really suggesting that parliamentarians all over the world should take these reports, start an immediate parliamentarian investigation, and research if these reports are truthful or not. They have immediate consequences for the security interests of the whole world.

Schlanger: You mentioned the trip of Chancellor Merz to Washington to meet with Trump. Politico news, in its coverage, said that Merz remained silent while Trump denounced Europe’s leaders. And the question comes in, what has been the response from Europe to Trump’s alliance with Israel and attacking Iran?

Zepp-LaRouche: The most noteworthy, which I already mentioned, comes from Spain, where Prime Minister Sánchez has forbidden the United States to use the joint American-Spanish bases in the south of Spain. That is the absolute just reaction.

Merz basically did not defend Spain. On the contrary, a lot of the American operations which would have normally moved via Spain were then moved to Ramstein, the U.S. base in Germany. The immediate response of the so-called Coalition of the Willing leaders, the E3 European leaders—[British Prime Minister Keir] Starmer, [French President Emmanuel] Macron, and [Chancellor] Merz—was not to attack the U.S. strikes on Iran, but to attack the Iranian retaliatory strikes against the U.S. bases in the other Gulf states—a total 100% reversal of [who attacked who first]. There was not one word that this was an unprovoked attack, not backed by international law, not backed by the UN Security Council, not backed by the U.S. Constitution, not backed by the U.S. Congress; in other words, an utterly illegitimate attack. The fact that these three European leaders had this reaction, forebodes something extremely bad—and I think the European Union is dead at this point, because I cannot imagine how that will stand.

Schlanger: There are reports that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Twenty percent of the world’s oil supply goes through there, and almost a fifth of global liquefied natural gas. Given the fragile state of the world economy, we saw a big effect in oil prices and drops in stock markets. What do you think is going to happen? This is obviously hitting at a very fragile moment. What can be done about that?

Zepp-LaRouche: The effects, only a few days after the attack started, are already being felt. The gasoline price in Germany went up over €2. LNG [liquified natural] gas and general electricity prices are going up.

But even worse, is that it could really lead to, in the very short term, an uncontrollable collapse of the financial system—given the fact that all of these situations are already stretched to the absolute edge. So, what can be done about it is exactly what we discussed on Monday [March 2]. I do not think that any one limited measure could resolve the problem, even going back to treaties with Russia on cheap gas—which wouldn’t happen anyway under these present circumstances.

So whichever way you look at it, I think the only thing which will work—and I think the recent developments make it clearer than at any time before—is that you need to have a complete change in the way of thinking. You have to understand that a continuation on this road can only lead to an absolute catastrophe, and that we have to have a new paradigm.

‘Might Makes Right’ Is Wrong

We have to go back to restore international law, and the only way I can see that that is possible is if we go to a new Peace of Westphalia. We have to have a new security and development architecture; an indivisible security. The idea that you can now basically go back down to “might makes right” is wrong. We have a looming conflict between the nuclear powers in the world; between Russia, China on the one side, and NATO dominated by the United States on the other side—and only very few steps are missing before it is too late. And if people don’t see that, then we have lost the moral ability to survive.

So, I would really urge you to take this proposal for a new security and development architecture seriously. Call up your parliamentarian, your Bundestag Abgeordnete [member of parliament], your Congressman or -woman, call up your Senator, call up your National Assembly representative, or whatever your form of government is, and insist that they put on the table this idea of a new security and development architecture, or else they will be voted out of office. I can only say that people have to start taking responsibility for the outcome of this crisis themselves, and not wait for somebody else to do it, because I’m afraid that “somebody else” is not there.

Schlanger: I have an email from someone who identifies himself as a retired law professor, and he writes that immediately after the kidnapping of Venezuelan President [Nicolás] Maduro by the Trump administration, he reports that Trump said, “I don’t need international law.” And he says the attack on Iran, including the murder of the head of state, reflects that lack of concern with international law. He writes, “Are there any consequences from these actions? Or are we seeing a decided shift to a law of the jungle?” And then he also appends the comments from “U.S. Secretary of War” [Pete] Hegseth, who said that the United States had found there was a team dispatched from Iran to assassinate Trump; that they were hunted down and killed; and that President Trump got the last laugh. He asks, is this what you mean by the law of the jungle?

Zepp-LaRouche: Reports from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation are that “Secretary of War” Hegseth is at least influenced by this fundamentalism; that he conducts regular prayer [meetings] in the Pentagon, and that about 20% of military officers have the same belief. If that’s the case—give me a break. If the present military operation is carried out in the belief that we are living in End Times, that the early return of Jesus Christ will come, that Trump has been anointed to have this religious freedom— I mean, what faith people believe in is their private business, and I’m for the strictest respect of religious freedom. But if it affects the existence of civilization, then there needs to be a scientific investigation. If this is actually occurring, then there has to be an immediate consequence; NATO must be dissolved. I mean, I don’t want to be in a military alliance which is shaped by people who have so-called religious beliefs which are not in the real world. And this I find so unbelievable that I absolutely can only repeat: It must be investigated, because if that’s the case, then nothing will stop these people. They’re accusing Iranians of being religious fundamentalists, but what are they?

So, I think an investigation is something we absolutely have to do. And I would urge this professor to help us. If you are a professor of international law, then help us to get to all the jurisprudence faculties of all universities. Let’s look at this from a standpoint of scientific rigor. We have to go back to the idea of reality, of facts, not post-fact narratives and all of this stuff which has occurred in the recent period. We have to go back to a rational approach to policy. We have to go back to diplomacy. In the time of thermonuclear weapons, it should be clear that war as a method of conflict resolution is insane. It can only lead to the destruction of civilization.

So, I think that this needs to be [undertaken], and I can only ask people to really start moving on that and not sit by and let the catastrophe play out.

Schlanger: There are two more questions on what you might call the spillover of the Epstein revelations. One, from Great Britain, refers to the shake-up in the UK in the recent election, the by-election in a district in Manchester, where Starmer and Labour came in with only 24% of the vote. The person says, “The problem I have is that the Greens who won that election have no alternative. The Reform Party, the Tories, nor Labour, none of them has an alternative. I fear there’s going to be chaos breaking out here. Is there anything that can be done?” So it’s the same kind of question.

Zepp-LaRouche: I’m not so familiar with the internal politics in Great Britain, so I cannot answer that. I can only say that there has to be something from the United States, because the United States still has a Constitution. There are still some politicians who are acting. There are [Rep.] Thomas Massie [R-KY], [Rep.] Ro Khanna [D-CA] on the House side. Then on the Senate side, you have [Sen.] Rand Paul [R-KY]; you have even [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [I-VT] now getting back into action. The MAGA movement apparently is extremely upset. Even according to the official polls, immediately after the attack on Iran, only 34% of the American people polled supported this. Trump had won the election by promising to be a peace President and not a war President. After only three days, only 29% support the military action in Iran.

Don’t Wait for the Elections

So therefore, maybe it requires the American people taking to the street to make clear now, not in the midterm election, that they do not approve of what is going on. And I think both that and what we are trying to do with the international movement of world citizens, I’m sure that other countries—any country that is not in this kind of geopolitical frenzy—I’m sure that they are all thinking about what could be done. I’m sure that the BRICS countries, the SCO countries and African Union—and other organizations of the Global South—are all in the process of brainstorming on what can be done to change this present dynamic. But a lot will depend on the American people standing up against this now, and, as I said, not waiting for the midterm election.

Schlanger: We have one more comment from someone from Pakistan, who writes in and says: “I’ve never been more convinced than now that LaRouche is right, that you have a British hand, the City of London hand, all over the world stirring things up.” He writes about his concern of the visit by India’s Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi to Israel, where he pledged full support to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu; And also, the fighting that’s broken out between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He says, “Do you see this as the effect of the British Empire stirring up every situation they can?”

Zepp-LaRouche: I think so; absolutely. In the war between Pakistan and Afghanistan, for sure. Because there you have to go back to the division of India, where the British—and the French for that matter, but especially the British—drew the border lines in such a way that it would always be the grounds for future manipulations; in this case, Balochistan. The present developments are clearly showing such a hand. Concerning Modi’s visit to Israel, the Indian opposition is sounding a clear alarm about that. Raul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress Party, and Sonia Gandhi have made statements absolutely denouncing this. I can only hope that the more reasonable elements in the Modi government recognize that they’re being played. They are being played in order to create disunity within the BRICS. And I can only hope that some more reasonable voices come to the fore. But I fully agree with the questioner that the British hand is everywhere.

What we’re seeing is the end of an empire. We see that the empire is overstretched. They may have some successes—Maduro, maybe Cuba soon, Iran; they probably have some other targets already mapped out. But I don’t think this can last very long. It is showing all the signs of a dying empire, which may cause incredible damage and may even annihilate the human species for that matter. But there is no winning option at all.