The award was created in memory of political scientist and polemologist Leon Wecke, former director of the Radboud University Study Centre for Peace Issues, since renamed Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management (CICAM), who passed away in 2015. Previous winners include journalists Carolien Roelants and Ko Colijn . At the end of this month, Can will elaborate on his ideas about war and peace based on a number of excerpts from his documentaries.
Can is delighted with the award, all the more because of his affinity with Wecke's thinking. He first became met Wecke when working as a researcher for the TV programme Zembla (between 2005 and 2011). Wecke was one of his informants. “I really liked his way of explaining things. I feel a kinship with Leon because he was a pacifist at heart and he was quite rightly known as the king of the peace movement. Like him, I believe in a peaceful planet; better a bad peace than a good war.”
Attention for jihadists
The jury honours critical and transverse thinkers who contribute to the public debate on war, peace, and international politics. The jury report called Can's work ‘critical of injustice’, and praised him for his ‘nuance, depth and genuine interest in what drives people’. They mentioned specifically the De verloren kinderen van het Kalifaat (Lost Children of the Caliphate) and My 9/11 programmes, in which Can (from Afghanistan) teamed up with Floortje Dessing (from the US) to portray the global consequences of the attack.
In his Retour Kalifaat (Return to the Caliphate, 2021), Can investigated the motives of three Western jihadists captured in Syria. The jury report sees in this a kinship with the legacy of Wecke, who always sought a breakthrough in the prevailing black-and-white thinking about war and peace. Wecke also asked for attention for what drives people, especially those who, according to common perception, are guilty of ‘violence and terrorism’.
Asked about the current coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Can brings to attention a number of underexposed angles: “What I miss is the economic aspect of this war. How much is the military economy earning from it? Which companies, what kind of weapons? I also hear little about damage to nature.” In this ‘transverse sound’, we hear echoes of Wecke's lectures.
The two sides of the war | Public programme with Sinan Can, with an interview based on excerpts selected by Can from his documentaries and the presentation of the Leon Wecke Award | Friday 29 September, 3.30 p.m., Leon Weckezaal, Elinor Ostrom Building, Radboud University | Please register via email at cicam [at] fm.ru.nl (cicam[at]fm[dot]ru[dot]nl)