Heute Nachmittag (7. Oktober 2020) hatte ich die Freude, zusammen mit fünf Wissenschaftskolleg*innen und UN-Expert*innen (Hannah Birkenkötter, Nicole Deitelhoff, Manuel Fröhlich, Carlo Masala, Hans-Christof von Sponeck) im Unterausschuss Vereinte Nationen des Deutschen Bundestages mit den Abgeordneten über Lehren und Schlussfolgerungen aus 75 Jahren Vereinte Nationen zu diskutieren. Die Debatte ist auf der Bundestags-Webseite auch schön zusammengefasst. […]
Vor wenigen Monaten hat der Deutsche Bundestag offiziell beschlossen, dass ab 1.1.2021 das neue Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten (BfAA) mit Sitz in Brandenburg(Havel) gegründet wird. Hier trage ich zusammen, was wir bislang alles wissen und was noch nicht (alles) auf der Wikipedia steht. [Alle Updates zum BfAA von mir gibt’s unter diesem Link] Warum mich […]
Tonight, the US-President decided to stop funding the World Health Organization (WHO). So let me explain what this means, as I have not only done research on WHO budgeting, but I also took a closer research look at what happened when the US stopped financing UNESCO in 2011 and UNRWA in 2018*. US total financing […]
We went to see the movie “Official Secrets” this weekend, starring Keira Knightley in the role of Iraq War whistleblower Katharine Gun (UK). The film is based on the book “The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War”, and earlier this year Gun also talked to The Guardian (podcast) about her story. For the past decade, […]
Together with my colleague Vytautas Jankauskas, I have blogged over at the E-IR blog about our research on the United Nations. The article is titled “How Well-meaning Donors Create the UN Machinery They Don’t Like“. For me, this blog post condenses a few of the ideas that have evolved in my head over the past […]
Am vergangenen Dienstag (22. Januar 2019) war ich in Berlin, auf der DGVN-Veranstaltung “UNbezahlbar! Reform und Finanzierung der Vereinten Nationen in bewegten Zeiten” zu Ehren des 80. Geburtstags von Klaus Hüfner. Klaus Hüfner ist seit Jahrzehnten mit Abstand der wichtigste Experte zum Thema UN-Finanzen in Deutschland, und die Veranstaltung war – dieser Expertise angemessen – […]
I have promised to blog more frequently this year and to share how life and work as a political scientist looks like from my end. For this week’s post, I use the occasion of Vigjilenca Abazi‘s announcement that her monograph “Secrecy and Oversight in the EU” is soon to be published with Oxford University Press (Buy it! Read […]
Some weeks ago, the European Commission discussed the upcoming Rio+20 conference on sustainable development (20-22 June 2012). When you read through the minutes of 22 May meeting of the Commission (p. 13-18), one can see that the expectations at EU level are not very high: “[Commissioner Piebalgs] said that the only outcome that the European Union could […]
Yesterday, the EU Council on Fisheries showed no urge to push for an environmentally sustainable fisheries policy (cf. my life blogging). Today, the EU Council on Agriculture showed no interest in greening the Union’s agriculture. I’m not what one might call a radical environmentalist. In fact, I have more hope in citizens changing their behaviour […]
The EU Council just published “The European Union mid-term priorities at the United Nations” (Update: slightly revised version) for “public diplomacy use”. I suppose that this means that there is a second document “for secret diplomacy use”. And indeed, reading through the “priorities” looks like a long shopping list of diplomatic blabla – whether it’s […]
UACES and Ideas on Europe do not take responsibility for opinions expressed in articles on blogs hosted on Ideas on Europe. All opinions are those of the contributing authors.