The Moral Energy of Prague: Vanda Proskova and the Inspiration of Bertha von Suttner

We begin our 2021 series with special guest Ms. Vanda Proskova – a member of global civil society and Vice chair of the Prague based NGO The Prague Vision Institute for Sustainable Security which advocates for policies that foster international peace and human security. Ms. Proskova and PragueVision have been hard at work in moving us closer to the more humane world that Bertha von Suttner envisioned. This task involves an appreciation of history – and of the project on which Suttner so passionately worked. But as we have repeatedly bemoaned, there is much ignorance about this history and sadly, this is no less true in Prague, where Suttner was born in 1843. Accordingly, in 2019, Ms. Proskova and her NGO set out to publish a new Czech translation of Bertha’s groundbreaking novel of 1889, Die Waffen Nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms). Ms.Proskova was also the primary organizer of an international conference in Prague not only to launch this new translation, but also to highlight Bertha’s connection to contemporary issues of international security such as nuclear disarmament. Join us for an inspiring conversation with Ms. Proskova which demonstrates the power of Bertha’s moral energy to inspire and move people today to continue working towards her vision of ‘humanity.’