Europe

Konkurrent oder Partner der EU? Das Verhältnis der neu geschaffenen Eurasischen Union zu Europa stand im Mittelpunkt der Konferenz, zu der das Berthold-Beitz-Zentrum der DGAP, der Valdai Club und das Institut Français des Relations Internationales eingeladen hatten.

“Today’s security challenges call for a new emphasis on professional capabilities,” said German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere. The realignment of the Bundeswehr is his response to this challenge. Defense no longer means just national defense, but also the defense of alliances as well as international crisis prevention and crisis management.

Policy analysts from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia take part in the 2012 TRAIN programme, which supports regional think tanks in the development and realization of their policy research. While the participating institutes pursue research in different thematic areas, their work shares a common reference point in the EU integration of the Western Balkan countries.

“People remember differently in Germany and France,” said French political scientist and publicist Alfred Grosser. But “the differences in the cultures of remembrance become blurred,” answered his countryman Etienne François, a former professor of political science at the Free University in Berlin. Beside this national distinctiveness lies a common Franco-German memory that has long existed. Has this helped German foreign policy on its path toward “normalization”?

Bei der XXV. Sitzung der Zukunftswerkstatt des Petersburger Dialogs diskutierten Nachwuchspolitiker und Experten aus Deutschland und Russland, wie sich die Beziehungen nach Präsident Putins Rückkehr in den Kreml entwickeln könnten.