Foreign & Security Policy

From mid-2010 to mid-2011 a working group of Israeli and Palestinian security experts developed concrete proposals and practical steps for international security guarantees in the case of a two state solution between Israel and Palestine. This work was undertaken at the invitation of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. The group presents their recommendations at several events in Berlin, Brussels and Washington, DC.

It is almost a year ago that Syrian citizens, inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, courageously took to the streets in protest against the decades-long denial of their basic rights by the Assad regime.

The discovery of 72 killed migrants in the northern state of Tamaulipas in August 2011 was a tragic event that accelerated and enhanced public awareness for the problem of severe human rights violations toward migrants in Mexico. Since then, new cases are continually coming out in the open. The majority of the migrants killed in Mexico are never identified and remain nameless.

Just before the start of the decisive crisis summit on the Euro, leading politicians of the SPD and Green party criticized Merkel's crisis management and demanded a radical rethinking from the German Chancellor.

The European crisis is not only a Euro or financial crisis, it also has far reaching political implications. In his article Rainer Emschermann analyses the political dynamics while Europe is struggling for ways to solve its deepest crisis since the foundation of the European Union.

From Syria, 8 months after the beginning of the popular uprising, this article offers a personal account of the brutality of the repression and its implications on the lives of human rights activists.

The Pashtuns are the ethnic majority in the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the Pakistani government is not caring about their issues. In the war on terror they often feel like cannon fodder.

During the Arab uprisings, an unprecedented number of women took to the streets, paving the way for a more important role in politics. However, in the transitional period that follows, they now have to fight against their exclusion from the political arena.

The proposal is part of the annual report of the German Council of Economic Experts, which advises the German government in economic problems. Leading economic experts support this proposal, which also has been endorsed by the Parliamentary Group of the Greens in the German Parliament.

What deep currents are likely to affect Europe and the United States over the next decade? Will they draw Europeans and Americans together or drive them apart? In this new book, Dan Hamilton and Kurt Volker offer “four futures” for the transatlantic relationship – each a narrative of how trends evident today could interact and evolve to shape the world we live in tomorrow.