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.
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 2022
From 29 September to 2 October 2022, the ISFB took place for the seventh time in the UN and federal city as the most significant international security conference in North Rhine-Westphalia and all neighboring federal states. After two years of digital/hybrid implementation during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, in 2022, the ISFB was conducted entirely in person.
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.


EUCERS: Climate an Energy Security
European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security
Lead:
Dr. Friedbert Pflüger
Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hilz,
Prof. Dr. Volker Kronenberg,

Security and Strategy Research
Henry Kissinger Professorship for Security and Strategy Research
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie

Global Infrastructure
Politik and Governance of Global Infrastructures
Lead:
Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer

International Security Forum Bonn
The ISFB is a high-level international event to ensure dialogue on current foreign and security policy issues.
Applications are now welcome for a long-term lecturer position at Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel
A cooperation between the Center for X-rays in Swedish Material Science (CeXS) at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Linköping University and CASSIS will explore German-Swedish collaboration at Research Infrastructures.
Frederik Schmitz is funded for his research project on the role of emotions and sensory perceptions in memory infrastructures in Taiwan and which influence these have on parties' political support. His case study examines museums and restaurants as nostalgic memory sites run by supporters and members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). These memory sites enable visitors to take a performative part in a curated Taiwanese past and let it affect them through sensory perceptions. According to the research hypothesis, these memory infrastructures are used to gain political support through nostalgia.
This Festschrift in honor of Professor Xuewu Gu's 65th birthday brings together contributions on two closely intertwined key phenomena in international relations: Power and Power Shifts.
With contributions from numerous CASSIS members such as Prof. James D. Bindenagel, Dr. Enrico Fels, Dr. Hans-Dieter Heumann, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hilz, Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie.
Cassis staff members Maximilian Schranner, Frederik Schmitz and Philip Nock, together with Lukas Hochscheidt and Leonie Hopgood, write a post on Blog 49security about why the next generation of security policymakers is ready to take responsibility for tough decisions.
Dr. Katharina C. Cramer receives presitgious DAAD PRIME Fellowship.
Dr. Katharina Cramer and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer will lead a sub-project of the four-year EU project called ReMade@ARI from September 1st.
The Digital Dependence Index provides a precise description of the state of affairs that can be used to assess whether the current policy approach in Brussels and Berlin, as well as the extent of the investments that have been initiated, are more than merely symbolic.
Prof. Maximilian Mayer describes in an article for 9Dashline how the European Union could mitigate the systemic tendency towards a 'Second Cold War'.
An article of the Wiener Zeitung about the study of Ulrich Schlie and the developments of NATO and their impact on the security policy of Austria.
Thomas Weber comments on the Reichsbürger movement in a piece for CNN.
Dr. Joachim Weber in a guest article for Focus Online: ''Die Kritik an Christine Lambrecht reißt nicht ab. Berichte über eine Krise bei der Beschaffung der F-35 weist ihr Haus zwar zurück. Doch angesichts der Schweizer Konditionen für das Tarnkappenflugzeug ist Kopfschütteln angesagt. Was ist nur mit der Verteidigungsministerin los?"
Prof. Maximilian Mayer is a guest in a contribution by Deutsche Welle Español. In it, he takes a look at the consequences of the current US chip embargo for China, but also for European partner countries.
Studio talk on Phoenix: On the current situation in Ukraine and Dr. Joachim Weber's assessment of the further course of the war in the winter.
Dr. Frank Umbach talks to Phoenix about the price cap on Russian oil.
Der Energieriese Qatar Energy hat laut Katars Energieminister Saad Scharida al-Kaabi Abkommen über Flüssiggaslieferungen nach Deutschland geschlossen. Das Gas solle an das US-Unternehmen Conoco Phillips verkauft werden, das es weiter nach Brunsbüttel liefere, sagte der Minister am Dienstag bei der Vertragsunterzeichnung in der katarischen Hauptstadt Doha. Die Lieferung soll 2026 beginnen und mindestens 15 Jahre laufen. Jährlich sollen bis zu 2 Millionen Tonnen geliefert werden.
Events
CASSIS offers a wide range of events on current foreign and security policy issues.

A publication by Dr. Iulian Romanyshyn, Research Fellow of CASSIS on NATO's Black Sea Strategic Alignment.
Together with Amir Elalouf, Maximilian Mayer has contributed a chapter called "Assessing the Financial and Geoeconomic Implications of China’s Digital Currency" in a publication edited by Tim Rühlig. It highlights the possible effects of the e-CNY on European security, values and competitiveness, and recommends steps to improve Europe’s economic and technological stance.
Prof. Ulrich Schlie on the process of reunification in the light of the friendship between Helmut Kohl and Giulio Andreotti.
"Events related to the Arab uprisings, ISIS’s rise to power and Russia’s aggression against parts of Ukraine in 2014 posed complex, though distinct challenges for the Federal Republic of Germany. How well were German leaders and officials informed about nascent as well as short-term developments beforehand and once these crises erupted? The widely shared appearance of sharp discontinuity in the way related historical processes unfolded raises questions about the degree to which decision makers and officials in government were taken by surprise."
This Festschrift in honor of Professor Xuewu Gu's 65th birthday brings together contributions on two closely intertwined key phenomena in international relations: Power and Power Shifts.
With contributions from numerous CASSIS members such as Prof. James D. Bindenagel, Dr. Enrico Fels, Dr. Hans-Dieter Heumann, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hilz, Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie.
The seizure of power by the National Socialists in January 1933 is a key event in world history. Hitler's rapid consolidation of power and the elimination of democracy virtually overnight still astonish and shock to this day. And to this day, historians disagree about the reasons for the end of the Weimar Republic and the rapid success of the National Socialists.
This book casts an international perspective on the epochal year 1933 90 years later and explores the questions: How could it happen? How can something similar happen again? And can we learn anything from it in times when democracies are under pressure and dictatorships are on the rise?
Nicolas Huppenbauer, Dr. Ying Huang and Prof. Maximilian Mayer explore the tension between digital fragmentations and connectivity in Chinese cyberspace and introduce a new term "selective connectivity".
Associate Fellow Ying Huang explores the issues of cyberspace fragmentation and global cyberspace governance in her article for the Journal of International Studies (国际政治研究). So far it is only available in Chinese.
CASSIS - Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn