PRESS RELEASE
2015 Silk-Road International Academic Conference Hears from Helga Zepp-Larouche and EIR’s Michael Billington
Aug. 25, 2015 (EIRNS)—The 2015 Silk-Road International Academic Conference, held in the ancient Korean capital of Gyeongju on Aug. 21 and 22, brought together academics and experts from several dozen nations, with the purpose of establishing a Silk-Road Universities Network. Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, known in China as the “Silk Road Lady,” sent a major presentation on the Silk Road, entitled “A New Era of Mankind, Where We Become Truly Human.” In it she dealt with China’s “One Road, One Belt” Silk Road development projects, and the new financial institutions which have been created by the BRICS and related Eurasian institutions, to establish credit for real physical development in the face of the collapsing western financial system. Her presentation was read by EIR Asian specialist Michael Billington.
The conference, which is occurring in the context of a several-month long cultural exposition on Korea’s connection to the ancient Silk Road, was devoted to “How to Establish Silk-Road Studies as an Independent Discipline of Research.” At the final assembly, thirty-four universities from 22 countries formally founded the network, with the goal of establishing a “cyber Silk Road university,” according to coverage in the Korea Times. The network will be based at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
Billington, on Mrs. LaRouche’s behalf, chaired the panel on the “Concepts and Significance of the Silk Road,” while also delivering presentations by Mrs. LaRouche and himself. Mrs. LaRouche put the Silk Road concept in the context of the Schiller Institute’s campaign for a New Paradigm for Mankind, stressing that the policy was urgently required to prevent a global war. Her remarks were complemented by those of Billington, who situated the New Silk Road in historical, philosophical context, and detailed some of the projects already on the drawing boards.
Transcripts of both presentations are available here.
