Our Mission
The Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) is an interdisciplinary research center at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in the field of strategic foresight, European and security policy research. Committed to the approach "Global Challenges Need European Responses", CASSIS contributes in interdisciplinary and inter-institutional work to develop, evaluate and publicly discuss European strategies to current challenges in the field of foreign and security policy.
Our Partners
Since 2019, CASSIS has developed into an important platform for the transfer of academic expertise and knowledge on pressing strategic topics both to the academic and non-academic audiences through a range of our research and high-profile teaching and event formats. While doing so, we were able to receive invaluable support from our great partners. CASSIS is very grateful to their support and we are proud to be well connected to many wonderful institutions. Together with our valued and trusted partners, we are able to foster discussions on matters of strategic importance near and abroad and jointly conduct and advance important research projects.
Current
Dossier Ukraine
The experts of CASSIS offer in various formats from their interdisciplinary perspectives classification and analysis on the Russian attack on Ukraine and its background.
The International Security Forum Bonn 2023
From 19 October to 22 October 2023, ISFB will be held for the eighth time in person on the premises of the University of Excellence Bonn as the most important international security conference in North Rhine-Westphalia and all neighboring federal states.
Our Focus
Research at CASSIS revolves around a broad conception of security: On the one hand, the focus lies on the interdisciplinary examination of traditional foreign and security issues such as inter-state conflicts, competing international systems of order and a return of geopolitics. On the other hand, researchers examine non-traditional security challenges such as cyber and energy security, terrorism and human security, focusing in particular on health and food security.
Integrated Security and Global Sustainability
Lead: Prof. Dr. Volker Kronenberg
Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hilz
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie
Security and Strategy Research
Henry Kissinger Professorship for Security and Strategy Research
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie
Global Infrastructures
Politics and Governance of Global Infrastructures
Lead:
Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer
Challenge East - Handlungsstrategien der Europäer in der östlichen Nachbarschaft
Lead: Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hilz Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinemann-Grüder
From September 16 to 20, the Summer School "Artificial Intelligence, Social Machines, and the Future of Democratic Societies" took place in Bonn, led by Professors Caja Thimm and Maximilian Mayer from the University of Bonn. The event was supported by RWTH Aachen and the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Individuals, Institutions, and Societies" and was part of the joint research initiative of the University of Bonn and RWTH Aachen, "Autonomy and autonomous systems." It served as a platform for discussions on the impact of artificial intelligence on democratic societies.
This innovative handbook on China, which will be available on Routledge from October 2024, offers an in-depth analysis of the complex and changing nature of global China and calls for a reassessment of existing theories of global and regional dynamics. Through theoretical innovation, methodological reflection and analytical transformation, it opens up new avenues for critical engagement with China's global interactions.
We congratulate the CASSIS Fellows Dr. Rogelio Madrueño and Prof. Dr. Sergio Tezanos for the successful completion of the summer school on ‘The Geography of Hunger in a Multi-Crisis World’, which took place in Santander in collaboration with the University of Cantabria, the Spanish Network of Development Studies (REEDES) and with the support of the BBVA Foundation and AECID.
We are delighted to announce that Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie has taken up a visiting professorship as Joint Research Professor at the School of International Relations at the renowned University of St Andrews in Scotland on August 1, 2024. The CASSIS team and the Henry Kissinger Professorship warmly congratulate Mr. Schlie on this success!
We are delighted to announce that the Managing Director of CASSIS and space expert Dr. Enrico Fels has successfully acquired funding from the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for the study on “Europe's Technological Sovereignty in Space”, which will begin in August 2024. Congratulations to him and the colleagues involved!
To mark the 80th anniversary of the assassination attempt on Hitler and the attempted coup d'état by the group led by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a colloquium organized jointly with the Army Officers' School, the July 20, 1944 Foundation, the Henry Kissinger Professorship at the University of Bonn and the Chair of European History at Chemnitz University discussed the significance of July 20, 1944 for the Bundeswehr in its current mission. The event took place on July 11, 2024 at the Offiziersschule des Heeres in Dresden.
On July 9, 2024, the Kölner Forum für Internationale Beziehungen und Sicherheit e.V. (KFIBS), in cooperation with the Bonner Hochschulgriuppe für Sicherheits- und Außenpolitik (BHAS), hosted a panel discussion on international perspectives on the Gaza war. Fenja Wiluda and Dr. Sascha Arnautović focused on the different interests in the Gulf States and the USA, which clash in the international dimension of the conflict.
What challenges does maritime security present us with in the 21st century? A lecture series in retrospect.
In an interview with NTV Dr. Frank Umbach analyses the US influence in the Israel-Iran conflict and the impact on the US election campaign.
In an interview with NTV, Dr Frank Umbach analyses the air strike in Beirut.
In the Phoenix interview, CASSIS Fellow Dr Frank Umbach discusses Boris Pistorius' visit to Poland and Lithuania.
In the Phoenix interview, CASSIS Fellow Dr Frank Umbach analyses the results of the meeting between Selenskyj, Biden and Harris.
In an article on GMX, Prof. Dr Volker Kronenberg analyses the election defeats of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and the problems facing the party as a whole.
In an interview on Deutschlandfunk-Kontrovers, Prof. Dr Volker Kronenberg analyses the potential of Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz as candidates for chancellor.
In an article in the Berliner Morgenpost, Dr Antje Nötzold analyses how the Bundeswehr is prepared for sabotage in space.
In an interview with Phoenix der Tag, Professor Dr Volker Kronenberg analyses the upcoming state elections in Brandenburg.
Events
CASSIS offers a wide range of events on current foreign and security policy issues.
A scientific analysis by Maximilian Mayer, Emilian Kavalski, Marina Rudyak and Xin Zhang on the complex and transformative nature of Global China.
In the commemorative publication for Andreas Sohn, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie describes the role of the Christian faith in the German resistance against Hitler.
In his publication, Dr. Frank Umbach analyses the security policy challenges for NATO in defending critical undersea infrastructure against Russia.
On the 80th anniversary of the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie discusses the significance of the memorial day today.
More than 45 years after his death, the memoirs of the German Chancellor and father of the economic miracle Ludwig Erhard are now being published. The work is edited by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie in cooperation with the Ludwig Erhard Foundation.
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlies' article in the “New German Biography” provides an overview of the life and work of the diplomat Paul Metternich as German ambassador in London from 1901 to 1912, who was a great advocate of German-British rapprochement throughout his life.
In his new specialist publication, PD Dr. Hüseyin Çiçek sheds light on how the AKP is increasingly relying on soft power as a power mechanism alongside established political alliances in order to promote its interests internationally. Particular attention is paid to addressing and integrating the Turkish diaspora through emotional and cultural ties. The analysis also touches on the impact of the AKP's minority policy on its foreign policy ambitions.
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, this anthology takes stock of the current activities, legal framework, political and military lines of conflict and areas of cooperation as well as further trends and challenges in space. On the one hand, the legal, military, economic and technological challenges of the growing importance of this strategically important area are analyzed. On the other hand, the ability and need for action of selected space powers, their cooperation possibilities and conflict potentials as well as the need for international political regulation are worked out and, based on this, political recommendations for action are presented.
CASSIS - Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn