Between Power and Principle: Europe's Responsibility in the New Global (Dis)order

Bonn Symposium 2025
Online Session 29 October 2025, 12.30 hrs
Evening event in Bonn on 20 November 2025, 18.00 hrs (in German)

Register now for the two remaining events of this year’s Bonn Symposium! In three online sessions, we will examine three current conflict hotspots and the roles the EU and other international actors can and should play. After two engaging events on the situations in Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we will discuss the current situation in Syria on 29 October. This session is organized and hosted by our partner, the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies. At the concluding evening event on 20 November in Bonn, we will discuss Germany’s engagement for peace in conflicts worldwide with our high-level experts.

Trading Places – The EU’s Global Free Trade Agreements in a Disrupted World

6 November 2025, 12.00 hrs, Brussels

At our Policy Lunch we will examine the EU's free trade agreements – how can they improve international cooperation in an increasingly fragmented world, what contribution do they make to Europe's economic resilience, and how must free trade agreements be designed so that all parties involved can benefit from them?

Register here – we look forward to seeing you there!

The New Tariff Era: Protectionism, Trade, and Global Partnerships

Brandenburg Dialogue 2025: Learning With Africa
1 December 2025, 16.30 hrs, Garnisonkirche Potsdam, German/English (simultaneous interpretation)

With Trump’s second term, US tariffs and countermoves are sowing uncertainty across global markets. The impact is immediate for export-oriented economies - from local Mittelstand firms in Brandenburg to SMEs across African countries.

We focus on what can steady the ground: reliable partnerships and stronger regional integration. How far can the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the EU Single Market cushion tariff shocks and where are practical fixes needed for relief to reach SMEs? The example of Lesotho shows how quickly tariff moves can slow value chains – this is where the evening picks up.

Join the discussion – register here!

Can Sanctions Backfire?

New Article in Defence and Peace Economics

The use of economic sanctions has significantly risen in the past few years, most recently as a reaction towards the war between Russia and Ukraine. Against this background, Manfred Lenzen (University of Sydney) and Tobias Debiel (Deputy Director of INEF) develop a quantitative model for estimating the economic effects of sanctions in a new research article published in “Defence and Peace Economics” and apply it to two scenarios: the Russia–Ukraine war and a possible conflict across the Taiwan Strait. The authors caution that the use of sanctions as an instrument of Western politics has severe limitations as sanctions, especially against Mainland China, can be costly and painful for the sending states.

Exclusive Geopolitics and Its Costs In Terms of Peace Policy

New Article published by the Toda Peace Institute

The era of the liberal world order is coming to an end. Trump 2.0 stands for the downright joyful destruction of existing structures at a breathtaking pace, without any outlines of a new order emerging. One of the main victims is Ukraine, which has been affected by Russia’s war of aggression and over whose head Trump and Putin recently negotiated territorial concessions in Alaska. Europeans, for their part, are in danger of ending up at the side table of great power diplomacy, unable to exert any influence on peace policy. In a new article published by the Toda Peace Institute, Tobias Debiel, Deputy Director of INEF, assesses the decline of the liberal world order, highlighting the need for a more independent European foreign policy.

Potsdam Africa Dialogues 2025: Read the report

This year’s theme, “Bridges Over Troubled Waters: Harnessing the Power of Water Diplomacy in Africa”, brought together policy-makers, scholars and practitioners to show how shared water governance can reduce tensions and build cooperation. Keynotes by Jenniver Sehring (IHE Delft) and Julienne Ndjiki (GWPSA) framed lively panels on regional institutions, development cooperation, the Blue Africa action, and community-led solutions. Catch the highlights and takeaways in our report.

Carmen Wunderlich receives 2025 Teaching Award in Political Science

INEF staff member Carmen Wunderlich has been awarded this year’s Teaching Award in Political Science by the German Political Science Association (DVPW) and the Schader Foundation for her advanced seminar „Nukleare (Un-)Ordnung im Wandel: Herausforderungen bei der Kontrolle, Nichtverbreitung und Abrüstung von Atomwaffen“ (engl.: “Nuclear (Dis)Order in Transition: Challenges in the Control, Non-Proliferation, and Disarmament of Nuclear Weapons”) held at the University of Freiburg.

Since 2021, the DVPW and the Schader Foundation have been awarding the Political Science Teaching Award annually for outstanding achievements in political science teaching. The prize is intended to make the importance of political science teaching at universities visible and to strengthen the quality of teaching in German political science.

The Development and Peace Foundation (sef:) was founded in 1986 on the initiative of Willy Brandt. It is a cross-party and non-profitmaking organisation. sef: provides an international high-level forum for shared thinking on the complex challenges of globalisation. It is linked to the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) by a cooperation agreement. The aim of INEF’s application-oriented research is to build bridges between theory and practice.