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 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.


EUCERS: Climate an Energy Security
European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security
Lead:
Dr. Frank Umbach
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 Infrastructures
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.
Henry Kissinger died on Wednesday at the age of 100.
Dr. Cramer receives one of ten EXIST-Women scholarships awarded by the Transfer Center enaCom at the University of Bonn and financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
A high-profile delegation from the University of Ghana visited the University of Bonn as part of the International Days. The two universities are linked by a strategic partnership based on university-wide cooperation in the areas of study, teaching and research. Following a visit by the Bonn university management to Accra before the start of the global corona pandemic, the return visit from Ghana, which lasted several days, was an important milestone in the cooperation.
CASSIS Senior Fellow James. D. Bindenagel comments on the development of Germany's international position in CIVIS magazine (Aug/2023) and on the American-German Institute's website.
Ambassador (ret.) Dr. Hans-Dieter Heumann, Senior Fellow at CASSIS, will speak about what impact the current situation in Israel may have on the relationship between Israel and its Arab neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Katharina Cramer and Nicolas Rüffin from CASSIS together with Kristofer Söderström from Lund University (Sweden) receive a prototyping grant from the University of Bonn for their project "Tiller - An AI-assisted platform for research infrastructures and their user communities".
Dr. Frank Umbach, Head of the European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS), discusses the future of global green hydrogen technology in the specialist publication "Geopolitical Intelligence Services".
for the anthology „Sicherheitspolitik nach der Zeitenwende. Herausforderungen, Trends und Perspektiven für Deutschland und Europa“
Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer and Prof. Gedaliah Ping Su, Associate Professor at the Tongji University School of Political Science and International Relations, discuss in an article for the IPS Journal what a "healthy" interdependence between the EU and China could look like.
CASSIS Fellow PD Dr. Hüseyin Çiçek in derStandard on Turkey's relationship with Israel
Dr. Frank Umbach on Phoenix about the speech by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the Middle East crisis
Dr. Frank Umbach analyses the developments in an interview with WELT and comments on the accusations that Russia's President Putin is secretly using doubles.
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Hüseyin Çiçek, CASSIS Fellow, in an interview on the conflict in the Middle East.
Dr. Frank Umbach talks to Phoenix about the situation of the hostages and the current situation in the region.
Ambassador (ret.) Dr. Hans-Dieter Heumann, Senior Fellow at CASSIS, will speak about what impact the current situation in Israel may have on the relationship between Israel and its Arab neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia.
CASSIS Senior Fellow James. D. Bindenagel comments on the development of Germany's international position in CIVIS magazine (Aug/2023) and on the American-German Institute's website.
Events
CASSIS offers a wide range of events on current foreign and security policy issues.

Under the editorship of Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer Guest, the Special Issue "Politics of Memory, Heritage, and Diversity in Modern China" was recently published in the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs. In various articles and in the introduction by Maximilian Mayer & Karolina Pawlik, the Special Issue addresses questions of the interaction between collective memory and Chinese identity, cultural modernisation and political mobilisation.
Nicolas Huppenbauer, Research Fellow and Doctoral Student at CASSIS, focuses on the geopolitical side of connectivity and Chinese standardisation practices in his new article in the "Global Media and China" journal.
Dr. Frank Umbach, Head of the European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS), discusses the future of global green hydrogen technology in the specialist publication "Geopolitical Intelligence Services".
Philip Nock, Research Fellow and PhD Candidate at CASSIS, et al. are conceptualising the "Second Cold War" between the US and China in comparison to the First Cold War in an article for the "Geopolitics" Journal.
In his publication "Prospects of Great Power Rivalry: Escaping the Tragedy?", Dr. Enrico Fels takes a scholarly look at expected future developments regarding rivalry between great powers in the Routledge Handbook of the Future of Warfare, which will be published on Sept. 19, 2023 and provides a comprehensive overview of the future of warfare that is both problem- and practice-oriented.
Ambassador (ret.) Dr. Hans-Dieter Heumann, Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, discusses French European policy under Emmanuel Macron with Dr. Markus Kaim, Senior Fellow in the Security Policy Research Group of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).
In his publication, Prof. Dr. Xiangming Chen, Visiting Fellow of CASSIS, discusses the significance of China's Silk Road Initiative.
Dr. Friedbert Pflüger, head of the European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS), discusses in his publication the advantages of the American Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) compared to the means of European climate policy.
CASSIS - Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn