A clear majority of Germans wish for both an active and a cooperative German presence in the EU. Our study examines the actual outlook of German citizens as well as citizens’ reported priorities for the  German Presidency of the Council of the EU.    

It is time to upgrade the current debate on multilateralism, to make it greener and more global. We tried to do just this at our 20th Foreign Policy Conference, which took place in Berlin on 30-31 January 2020. This reader provides some insights into our major topics, from trade to climate to security policy, with perspectives from South Africa, India, Brazil, the US and the EU.

Twenty years on from the Kosovo War, the collective memory of both parties in the conflict remains burdened by myths and incontestable truths about what actually took place. In this issue of Perspectives we aim to highlight the fact that Kosovo is not just a toponym, but a country burdened by its recent violent history, where common people are struggling to rebuild the broken societies that the conflict has left behind.

The EU fails anew to defend European values in the Balkans. Raging destructing ideologies, which have forged ahead during the 1990ies, now bounce back into the EU and endanger the cohesion inside the Union and its very foundations.

A decline in democratic quality can be observed worldwide. The terms populism, nationalism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism are omnipresent in attempts to explain and describe this development. The e-paper examines overlaps, differences and their relationship to one another, highlights global and regional trends of autocratization and highlights the consequences of this development for civil society in the affected countries.

Nineteen Dos and nine Don'ts explained, which are helpful for developing a successful Global Biodiversity Framework.

Stop flooding the world with plastic! For the first time in Germany, major civil society actors have come together in an alliance to resolve the plastics crisis and have formulated 15 demands for the German government to act on.