On May 29, 2026, the panel discussion “Decentralizing Diplomacy: Subnational Perspectives on Inter-Regionalism across the AU, EU, and ASEAN” took place. Organized by Aliru Abiodun Adiatu and moderated by Christian Bueger, the participants discussed the growing importance of subnational diplomacy in relations between the AU, the EU, ASEAN, and other regional integration systems. The panel …
AIA NRW Fellow Filipe Mendonça presented his research project on Brazil’s foreign policy maneuvering room in the context of global power struggles—particularly in relation to the United States and China—at the AIA Colloquium. Drawing on a book he published on U.S. trade policy, he provided insights into his research. His key questions are: How has …
Christian Bueger gave a presentation as part of the AIA Fellow Colloquium. He began by providing an overview of his research interests and discussed how his research profile has evolved over time. He then focused specifically on one of his current projects, which centers on multi-national military gatherings (MMGs). Based on various invitations to such …
Ramya Vijaya presented her research project on the links between debt and good governance. Building on her previously published articles, which she had shared with the fellows in advance, the outlines of her planned book-length project on the topic began to take shape. She began by noting that a new phase of fiscal austerity has …
The interconnections between humanitarian development and the prospect for peace were discussed in a meeting held by the parliamentarian group on “Poland, Ukraine, Middle and East Europe, the Baltics”, who had invited AIA Associate Fellow Dr Mariia Levchenko to give an input, based on her research in Ukraine. With the Russian war against Ukraine continuing, …
Issue-linkages evolution and consequences on cooperation Together with IDOS, the Academy organised a workshop with its fellows Cécile Pelaudeix and Christian Bueger on the growing geopolitical tensions in the Arctic and their geostrategic significance for global politics in the 21st century. On the first panel, moderated by Cécile Pelaudeix, AIA Fellow Christian Bueger began by …
Geopolitics Between Climate Change and Global Realignment A public evening event, organised as a joint initiative between the Academy and IDOS, explored the complex interplay between geopolitics and environmental change. The event formed part of the City of Bonn’s ‘May of Science’ initiative. The focus was on two current crisis regions and geopolitical hotspots: the …
Challenges for Europe and ramifications for NRW AIA Fellow Cécile Pélaudeix met for a technical discussion with staff members of the Europe and Foreign Trade Group, led by Anna Haas, at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection, and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Chaired by Division Head Björn Schubert, Cécile Pélaudeix …
North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) stands at the center of Germany’s energy transition challenge. As the country’s most productive industrial region, NRW is responsible for approximately one-third of Germany’s total greenhouse gas emissions, with its lignite power sector alone accounting for some 75 million tones of CO2 per year. The decarbonization of the state’s steel, chemical, and …
As the last event in a series of engagement with its focus topic on Subnational Diplomacy, the Academy hosted a Webinar on Paradiplomacy during Global Crisis. Organised by Associate Fellow Debora Prado, the debate featured her, Anja Jakobi, Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska, and Associate Fellow Summar Iqbal Barbar. With a focus on the role of paradiplomacy in …
David Brandon Smith is working on the role of the churches in Namibia’s struggle for independence as part of the “Decolonizing Postcolonialism” project at Goethe University Frankfurt. In his lecture, which in a sense followed up on the evening event with Henning Melber held a few weeks ago at the Academy, he gave the fellows …
In cooperation with the Paradiplomacy Scholars Forum, a webinar was held at the initiative of AIA Fellow Débora Figueiredo M. Prado (Federal University of Uberlândia / AIA NRW) focusing on historical developments, institutions, and specific case studies of Brazilian paradiplomacy. With its 210 million inhabitants, Brazil is the seventh most populous country in the world …
On 16 March, Dr Huanyu Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher at the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies (GIES) at Ghent University in Belgium, visited the Academy. Dr Zhao gave the fellows fascinating insights into her research project, ReConnect China, which is funded under Horizon Europe. The project brings together around 100 researchers from 15 …
Suart MacDonald used the colloquium to take stock of his project on the topic of ‘Sub-national Soft Power: Policy, Strategy, and Measurement.’ His starting point was the question of whether the soft power analysis model (Assets–Infrastructure–Outcomes, AIO) he had developed in another context for the national level could also be applied to regions and cities. …
In cooperation with the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), the Centre for Reconciliation Studies, and the Global Heritage Lab at the University of Bonn, a public evening event on German colonialism and the German-Namibian past took place on 11 March. Moderated by AIA Fellow Heloise Weber, German-Namibian political scientist Henning Melber, Julia …
In cooperation with the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), the Centre for Reconciliation Studies, and the Global Heritage Lab at the University of Bonn, a workshop on postcolonial perspectives on current political challenges, with a special focus on the case studies of Germany and Namibia, was held on 11 March at the …
In cooperation with the North Rhine-Westphalia State Representation in Brussels, the AIA organized a workshop on the importance of European regions for the future of Europe’s soft power, initiated by AIA Fellow Stuart MacDonald. The regions are home to important players such as city networks, cultural institutions, universities, and innovation ecosystems, which have great appeal …
At the AIA Colloquium, Karolina Kluczweska and Katja Freistein presented a jointly authored paper that takes an analytical look at K-dramas to examine gender inequalities in Korean society. Based on the fact that women in South Korea earn up to 31.5% less than men and are socially disadvantaged in many ways, the fiction of television …
The workshop, organized by AIA Fellows Summar Iqbal Barbar and Ifedayo Grace Malachi, addresses an important dimension of the Academy’s chosen annual theme of translocalism and sub-national diplomacy. The aim of this workshop was to use concrete examples from the Global North and Global South to gain a clearer understanding of categories such as diaspora, …
On 13 February, AIA Fellow Stuart MacDonald joined an expert panel at the Munich Security Conference to discuss one of the most pressing questions in contemporary international affairs: how Western nations are faring in the global competition for trust, influence, and young people’s allegiances. Drawing on findings from his recent major comparative study of soft …