International Policy

From today on, EU and US officials are meeting in Brussels for a new round of talks.

Hannah Arendt would have found a lot to dislike about today’s Russia. But she would have loved Pussy Riot. An excerpt from the lecture of Ralf Fücks upon the occasion of the 2014 Hannah Arendt Prize.

Hungary continues to extend its energy relations with Russia causing another major tension in the already heavy-loaded Hungarian-EU relations.

More than six million Syrian refugees are in search of a different, a safer place in their home country and yet only arrive at places that are currently slightly less ghastly.

ISIS has plenty of funding, but it does not live on material sources only: one of their most powerful weapons is to commit the most monstrous atrocities - and make sure everybody sees them. Unable so far to stop them, Arab activists at least try and mock them, and the French foreign minister tries to ban them rhetorically where they want to be least: in the letter soup. Instead of their self-chosen name "Islamic State" he from now on wants to refer to them only by the acronym Daesh which they hate and try to ban by all means.

Etre sérieux  en politique, c'est d'abord appeler les choses par leur nom.

The crisis in Ukraine poses new challenges to Green peace-oriented foreign policy. The most important task right now is to persuade Russia to conform to international standards.  

Large-scale religious-historical references are readily used to explain recent events in the Middle East. In reality, however, protagonists pursue mundane interests: money and power.

"In a globalised world that is closely interconnected through trade, investment, migration and the Internet, a ‘without us’ attitude just isn’t realistic", emphazised Ralf Fücks in his opening speech of our 15th Annual Foreign Policy Conference, which asked for current status of Germany's foreign policy.