Our Mission

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.

On Friday, July 5, 2024, the Johannes Rau Research Association held the Parliamentary Breakfast “Silk Road” in North Rhine-Westphalia's State Parliament, where Nicolas Huppenbauer from CASSIS presented research from his doctoral thesis on the topic of “De-Risking or Connectivity - China’s Economic Role in NRW.”

The CASSIS and the ICI organised a Summer Academy for future decision-makers from the Middle East and Europe, focussing on the nexus of climate change and security.

The AfD's electoral success in the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony raises questions of concern. However, the rise of the AfD cannot be equated with the downfall of the first German democracy in 1933: Berlin is not Weimar.

In the Phoenix interview, Prof. Dr. Volker Kronenberg comments on the results of the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony.

In the NTV interview, Dr. Joachim Weber puts the Ramstein meeting in Germany in perspective.

In the Phoenix interview, CASSIS Fellow Dr. Frank Umbach comments on the commissioning of new IRIS-T air defence systems and assesses the current situation in Ukraine.

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie has published an anthology on Liechtenstein's strategy during the Second World War against the backdrop of the National Socialist threat.

In a guest article for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Dr. Hüseyin Cicek analyses the risk of escalation in Turkish-Israeli relations.

In an interview with Phoenix, CASSIS Fellow Dr Joachim Weber comments on the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Following public criticism, the Federal Ministry of Defense has withdrawn additions to the Bundeswehr's decree on tradition. In Cicero, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie criticizes the decision with regard to the military leadership's lack of understanding of tradition.

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.

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlies' contribution provides a comparative historical analysis of the ministerial dismissals of Rudolf Scharping as Defense Minister by Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in July 2002 and of Norbert Röttgen as Environment Minister by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel in May 2012.