International Politics

Economic and environmental challenges that threaten to overwhelm the European project. The Heinrich Böll Foundation has set up a commission to examine the future of the EU. This publication puts forward a series of proposals in areas such as foreign and security; agricultural; energy; economics and monetary and enlargement policy.

Publication Series on Europe 6: With the ink on the Treaty of Lisbon scarcely dry, the European debt crisis has once more raised the question as to how the EU should be constituted. The Union’s ability to hold together and withstand the crisis is being put to the test. The EU finds itself at a crossroads.

The 2007–2008 world food price crisis caused political and economical instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations. This was only the latest example for a functioning food system being an indispensable pillar of a stable economy and a society capable of reproducing itself. A new study outlines steps how the intergovernmental Committee on World Food Security could be expanded towards a politically relevant international steering committee.

Publication Series on Democracy 22: One of the most important focal points of overlapping and competing interests of both established and emerging powers is the Middle East. This region is an arena where the new rules of the game are being developed and acted out. This publication attempts looking at the effects of the global shift of power on the Middle East to explore the perspectives 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.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen between 7 and 18 December will be extremely critical in determining the global actions to curb climate change in the future. This issue of Perspectives covers some of the key issues and implications of the negotiations as they are viewed from (Southern) Africa.

Ways out of the dead end - How to get the European Constitutional Treaty back on track

Publication Series on Europe 2: The European Union urgently needs new impetus after the failed attempt to establish the European Constitutional Treaty – which carried so many hopes, maybe too many hopes.