This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Die Multipolare Welt. It has been translated from the original German for publication here.

Oct. 5—Istanbul, the metropolis of 16 million on the Bosporus, is increasingly positioning itself as a center of dialogue on the creation of a new global order. On September 26 and 27, independent and weighty voices from diplomacy, the media, and think tanks gathered there for the first East-West Forum, a co-production of the Transcontinental Initiative and the media agency Harici. More than 200 people engaged with the speakers in a theater hall on the European side of the city—the only city in the world that spans two continents, Europe and Asia. The four panels addressed roughly the following themes: (1) “The World in Transition: Multipolarity and the End of the Liberal Order”; (2) “How Can a New Order Be Jointly Shaped and Peacefully Institutionalized?”; (3) “Europe Beyond the EU: Atlanticism, Eurasia and Strategic Autonomy”; and (4) “Possible Solutions to Regional Proxy Wars.” Given the constraints of space, it is of course impossible to convey every argument and facet of the discussion. The following observations cover most of the main presentations from the four panels. Full video recordings are available on the YouTube channel of the Harici news agency. The conference was conducted in English. All translations are by the author of this article, who attended the event. [Quotes in this article are back translated into English. -Editor]