Picture above by Stefan Bladh: Syrians crossing the Orontes river between Turkey and Syria on a winter day, by trying to follow a ford in the river. Picture from the civil war.

Occasionally, I moderate debates and seminars, in Swedish or English. Examples below.

Strövtåg i Palestina

Modererade ett samtal med Raja Shehadeh och Johannes Anyuru på Bokmässan i Göteborg 2026. Shehadeh är i mångas ögon palestiniernas främste nu levande författare av non-fiction. Äntligen finns två av hans titlar på svenska, utgivna av Celanders förlag, Strövtåg i Palestina: Till fots i ett försvinnande landskap och Varför fruktar Israel Palestina? Johannes Anyuru är högaktuell med essäsamlingen Upplyst sten 2023–2026 (Norstedts), som kan läsas som en J’accuse, en anklagelseskrift, om vad som händer i Gaza sedan den 8 oktober 2023.

Allt har en smak av aska

Ett samtal med Sveriges radios Mellanösternkorrespondent Cecilia Uddén med anledning av hennes nya bok, Allt har en smak av aska, inför en fullsatt lokal i ABF-huset, Stockholm.

Finding a way forward. Communities and Civil Society in the Israeli – Palestinian conflict

At Medelhavsmuseet (Museum of the Mediterranean) in Stockholm, on 3 June 2025, I had the honor to moderate a talk between three representatives of the Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian civil societies.

Topic: How can Israeli and Palestinian civil society be revived in order to find a new path towards peace? What can the European Union do to further the cause of peace at this fateful junction in the history of these societies and this conflict?

Speakers: Ayala Metzger (Peace-Advocate from the Hostage Movement, Tel Aviv)
Thabet Abu Rass (Political Analyst and a Board Member of the Van Leer Institute)
Ziv Stahl (Director of Yesh Din, Survivor of the 7 October massacre).

Unfortunately the seminar was not streamed.

The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: Consequences of War and Prospects of Peace

A seminar at the Museum of the Mediterranean (Medelhavsmuseet) on December 3 2024, with Hugh Lovatt, ECFR; Dimi Reider, editor in chief of The Lead and co-founder of +972 Magazine; Hebatalla Taha, Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at Lund University, and with me as the moderator.

The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs

A talk on stage in Stockholm with the historian Marc David Baer, author of the masterpiece The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs. The occasion was the launch the Swedish translation of his book, Osmanska riket: Khaner, kejsare och kalifer (Natur & Kultur), translated by Erik MacQueen. My talk with Professor Baer is now available on Youtube. Click above!

Turkey’s Neo-Ottomanist Moment: A Eurasian Odyssey?

How shall all the moves in Turkey 's foreign policy be understood? See the discussion with Cengiz Çandar, author of the newly released 'Turkey's Neo-Ottomanist Moment: A Eurasian Odyssey', and Aslı Aydintasbas from the European Council on Foreign Relations as discussant. And myself as moderator. A UI & SUITS event (Swedish Institute of International Affairs & Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies).

Exclusive dialogue with the Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi

The prominent Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, has been in and out of prison in Iran since many years, sentenced to many years in prison and whiplashes. Although she has not seen her children since 2015, and despite having suffered from what she describes as ‘white torture’ inside Iranian jails and interrogation centers, she remains unwavering in her call for an end to the death penalty and other human rights abuses in Iran. She made this clear in a press conference and dialogue that I moderated with her in 31 May 2021 – with well over 500 participants in various countries. The dialogue was co-hosted by Baran Publisher, PEN in Sweden, Norway and Denmark and Amnesty International in Sweden.

Book launch of Turkey’s Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds by Cengiz Çandar

Turkey’s Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds (Lexington Books) is the opus magnum of the renowned Turkish journalist Cengiz Çandar. In our talk, Cengiz Çandar explains why he considers the Kurdish question to be ”the mother of all questions in Turkey” and how he came to be the special advisor to late President Turgut Özal in his attempt to make a historical rapprochement with the Kurds in the early 1990’s. Plus much more. The talk, co-hosted by Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies (SUITS) and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) can be seen via this link or on YouTube below. It is followed by a Q&A session.

Prize ceremony for the Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky

On August 6, 2019, the Israeli lawyer Gabi Lasky received a Human Rights Award in the memory of the Swedish lawyer Anna Dahlbäck, who passed away much too early. From our discussion it was clear that Gaby Lasky and Anna Dahlbäck had been soul mates, if they only had had the chance to get to know each other. Gaby Lasky described the shrinking democratic space in Israel/Palestine, and how defenders of human rights, like herself, are attacked and seen as traitors. Gaby Lasky also expressed her passionate and principled support for the universal human rights.

Folkrätt och internationella konventioner efter IS fall i Syrien och Irak

Arrangör: Centrum mot våldsbejakande extremism, CVE. I panelen: professor emeritus Ove Bring, kammaråklagare Henrik Attorps och CVE:s chef Jonas Trolle. 25 april 2019 på ABF Stockholm. Länk här.

Prospects of Reform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

A talk with the Saudi human rights defender, Yahya Assiri, at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI). Yahya Assiri represents the three incarcerated Saudi Right Livelihood Award Foundation Laureates: Dr Abullah al-Hamid, Professor Mohammd Fahad al-Qahtani and the lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair. A UI event on Nov 23, 2018, co-arranged with the Right Livelihood Award Foundation and Amnesty International, Sweden.

Profiles of the Missing – with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP)

Queen Noor of Jordan, board member of ICMP, addressed the audience at UI (Swedish Institute of International Affairs). The seminar – including testimonies about the genocides in Srebrenica in Bosnia, and against the Yazidi people of Iraq, can be seen on this link.

A talk with two Olof Palme Prize Laureates

In the Swedish Parliament: A discussion with the Olof Palme Prize Laureates, the Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb from Bethlehem and Gideon Levy, famous and fearless reporter of Haaretz, who has been covering life in the occupied Palestinian territories for the last 40 years. The prize ceremony (see picture) was held in the same old Chamber where late PLO chairman Yassir Arafat expressed his support for a two state solution in December 1988 (which was breaking news then). Arafat's announcement paved the way for the Olso process, which was supposed to lay the foundation for a Palestinian state by 1998. Yet the two state solution still is a distant day dream.

Mitri Raheb's argued that it's too late for a two state solution now, due to illegal settlements on the West Bank, and too early for a one state solution. Gideon Levy suggested that the international community calls for equal right for all – regardless of their ethnic or religious background – between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. 

Read Mitri Raheb's speech on this link.

Sigrid Kahle – In memoriam

På Bokmässan i Göteborg med den nu bortgångna författaren, orientalisten och kulturjournalisten Sigrid Kahle och hennes sista kärlek i livet, författaren Carl-Göran Ekerwald. Sigrid Kahle var en enastående personlighet. Vid detta samtal var hon redan märkt av sin cancersjukdom och hade mycket ont. Men det märktes inte när hon blev upp på scenen och mötte publiken. Det får mig att tänka på att hon som ung i Pakistan var med om att starta en nationalteater i Karachi. Sigrid Kahle var en mycket levande människa in i det sista.

Ett samtal som berörde mig djupt och även många åskådare, hoppas jag.