is managing director of Wespennest, Austria.
Warring parties that benefit from violence and extortion – targeting civilians, looting, smuggling and abducting, pushing identity politics – are averse to resolution. How can diplomatic peace negotiations move beyond discussions about territory and improve the lives of war victims? And how can objective threats be identified in times of escalating conflict?
German archaeologist Andreas Schmidt-Colinet worked at Palmyra for thirty years before the civil war in Syria. In an interview with ‘Wespennest’, he criticizes the international reaction to the vandalization of the ruins by IS and argues that the last thing the West should be doing now is reconstructing the site.
A dramatic decline of advertising revenue has forced Austrian journal Wespennest to scale down from four issues to two issues a year. While commitment to the print format remains undiminished, the question of how to build up readerships across generations remains open, write the editors.
