Foreign & Security Policy

The expectations towards the German Green Party have changed since March 27, 2011. Clearly, the Greens no longer serve an ecological niche. In their new role as a party of the center, the Greens will automatically have to assume more responsibility if they do not want to disappoint their new voters.

Should Arab countries with less advanced technological capacities invest in nuclear power that proved uncontrollable in Fukushima, Japan? Activists and policy-makers from the Arab World and Europe critically discuss these and other questions in this report.

The people of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and also in other countries such as Yemen, Bahrain and Algeria are revolting against encrusted structures. Which direction the movement will take is still open, but one thing has become clear during the last few weeks: Neither the EU nor the EU Member States can claim that the current transition process in Tunisia or Egypt is a direct result of the European democratization policy.

The European Union ushers in the new year amid the ruins of its foreign policy with regard to Eastern Europe. If the EU wants to be a strategic actor in Eastern Europe, it will have to offer credible accession perspectives to all countries wishing to be a part of democratic Europe.

The Jasmine Revolution has prevailed, and the dictator has fled. The Tunisian people have outlined a new page in their history and the history of the Arab world during this first half of 2011.

The Heinrich Boell Foundation Afghanistan published three policy briefs on current affairs in Afghanistan with an emphasis on the problematic relations between the government, tribes and the international military; on a tribal engagement strategy to ensure stability; and on the role of the international security forces in the country.

On December 1, the Brookings Center on the United States and Europe and the Heinrich Böll Foundation of North America gathered some 30 economists, experts and analysts from both sides of the Atlantic for a closed-door workshop on the challenges confronting Europe and America in the wake of the global economic crisis.

One of the most important focal points of overlapping and competing interests of both established and emerging powers is the Middle East. This publication attempts to look at the effects of the global shift of power on the Middle East to explore the prospects of the region to become a partner in an emerging multi-polar system, rather than a stomping ground or even a battlefield for the interest and the prestige of others.

It is particularly difficult to attain higher social status in Germany. Why is that, how should we tackle the issue and how the German situation differs from the situation in North America? At a conference organised by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung several experts and politicians tried to find answers to these questions.

As more time passes since the disputed June 2009 election in Iran that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, the Iranian regime’s campaign of repression against its own citizens deepens. Now more than ever, the segment of the Iranian population seeking positive change feels depleted and disillusioned. This report focuses on the desires of Iranians who are directly involved in the opposition movement or who support the movement regarding the steps governments should take to pressure Iran on its human rights violations.