A bimonthly magazine on international affairs, edited in Germany's capital

We Have Moved!
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We Have Moved!

Death in the Himalayas
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Death in the Himalayas

The Master of Reinvention
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The Master of Reinvention

Belarus Primed to Break Free
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Belarus Primed to Break Free


The EU’s deficient foreign policy is to blame in part for the current refugees crises. But few in Berlin or elsewhere acknowledge this.


Russia’s President has used Europe’s dependence on Russian gas as a powerful geopolitical lever. But energy geopolitics is a risky game, especially with Brussels now poised to take advantage of opportunities to permanently slash Gazprom’s market share.


The giant consensus machine that is the EU is still running smoothly enough, but Europe – and Greece – will continue to suffer from the euro’s flawed construction.


Germany is facing intense criticism for its handling of the Greek crisis. However, few remember the obstacles the Merkel government had to overcome to reach an agreement with Athens and keep the eurozone together.


The advice coming across the Atlantic illustrates one thing clearly: Washington does not understand the purpose of the European Union and its common currency.


Germany’s finance minister may be (southern) Europe’s most hated man – at home his approval ratings are going through the roof. Pointing to the inner logic of eurozone rules he may have more in mind than the future Europe’s single currency.

Greece needs to make reforms if it is to return to growth, and it is more likely that this will happen inside the euro than outside. The key is to reactivate a logic that has worked many times: solidarity in exchange for reforms.


Has anybody counted how often the headline “Now Grexit is unavoidable” has popped up in the media over the last few months? In fact, the ongoing Greek debt crisis is predictable only in its unpredictability.


Angela Merkel’s government seem to be taking the accelerating Greek crisis in good spirits, and it isn’t hard to see why: with Sunday’s referendum, Greece’s government has taken the country’s fate into its own hands


The European Union and India have quite a bit to offer one another. Why is it so difficult to get them to talk?


German Chancellor Angela Merkel may not be to blame for the crisis in Greece, but her handling has contributed to the emergency the euro finds itself in now.


There was nothing he wouldn’t sell and very little he couldn’t buy. Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski was communist East Germany’s foremost capitalist. Having outlived the state he served by a quarter century, he died on June 21 at the age of 82.


Don’t fall for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear grandstanding: economically, he has his back to the wall. The deployment of US troops and heavy weapons in Eastern Europe would only play into his hands.


No, the West has not (yet) lost Ukraine, and the fragile Minsk truce and Western sanctions on Moscow have not (yet) failed. But Vladimir Putin’s 19th-century fixation on national military greatness may yet spoil attempts to stabilize the situation.


This week’s G7 meeting at Schloss Elmau may not have produced many tangible results, but it did offer yet another display of the power German Chancellor Angela Merkel currently wields in Europe.


Seen from the other end of the Atlantic, the solution to the euro crisis always seemed obvious to some – not least NYT columnist Paul Krugman. Yet the Nobel Prize-winning economist has been wrong on virtually everything he has said about European fiscal policy.


The US Department of Justice’s indictment of leading FIFA officials is likely the result of successful cooperation with between US and European authorities, and relied on robust data collection. This example of successful surveillance could do with a bit more fanfare.


Fyodor Lukyanov says that the EU is living a fantasy, while Russia practices the kind of realism that has always guided international policy. Ulrich Speck disagrees – countries have always looked out for themselves, but they have also respected norms.


There are four Western scenarios on the Ukraine crisis competing to explain where we stand: the McCain, Mearsheimer, Motyl, and Merkel theses. Which is right? (Part 2 of 2)


Berlin’s scandal-starved opposition senses blood in the water. Has Germany’s foreign intelligence service broken the law in assisting America’s ever data- and information-hungry National Security Agency?