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IMAGO / Anadolu Agency

Department of War: Change of Name, Change of Mission?

The Trump Administration's Defense Strategy

This fall, the Trump administration is expected to release its National Defense Strategy. While few details have been disclosed, a strong indicator of its direction is the recent 200th executive order, which renames the Department of Defense to Department of War.

Dr. Hardy Ostry, Maša Ocvirk
September 26, 2025
Country reports
Thai News Pix/Arnun Chonmahatrakool

Change of Government in Thailand

New Elections in Spring

Thailand has a new government – at least an interim one: On September 5th, 2025, the Thai parliament elected Anutin Charnvirakul from the conservative Bhumjaithai Party (BJT) as the new Prime Minister. The new cabinet was appointed on September 19. Charnvirakul succeeds Paetongtarn Shinawatra of the Pheu Thai Party (PTP), who – like her predecessor Stretta Thavisin – was removed from office by Thailand’s Constitutional Court after only one year in power. This makes him the third head of government since the last regular parliamentary elections in May 2023. The next change is already on the horizon: His election was tied to the condition that new elections and a referendum on constitutional reform must be initiated within four months. That means the clock is ticking until January 2026. What are the reasons behind these events? How will they affect the future government and the Thai party landscape? And most importantly: What’s next for this Southeast Asian country marked by political instability and uncertainty?

Dr. Angelika Klein, Sarita Piyawongrungruang
September 26, 2025
Country reports
KAS/Marian Wendt

Greece's new course after the summer break

Between demographic crisis and hope for reform

After the summer break, it is a tradition in Greece for the Prime Minister to outline the political agenda for the coming year at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF). In 2025, this happened under special circumstances: Kyriakos Mitsotakis (New Democracy - ND) appeared noticeably under domestic political pressure at the beginning of September. In the polls, his party is currently only at around 25 percent – a significant slump compared to previous years. Inflation, the inherited corruption scandal in agricultural subsidies and the reappraisal of the Tempi train accident are currently leaving more people undecided. This made it even more important to send a positive and forward-looking message that Mitsotakis wanted to send from TIF: a political roadmap that combines short-term social relief with a long-term reform agenda. The focus was on solving the demographic crisis: tax breaks for young people and families, housing construction programmes and targeted aid for rural regions are intended to counteract low birth rates and emigration. In addition, the prime minister presented measures for the economy and the middle class, such as tax breaks and impulses to strengthen purchasing power. Finally, he underlined the need for far-reaching reforms with a European dimension – towards a modern state that asserts its role as a reliable partner in the EU.

Marian Wendt, Vasilis Karydas-Yfantis
September 24, 2025
Country reports
Adobe Stock / Shutter B

Priorities for an Interest-Driven German Foreign Economic Policy

From Values to Reality

Germany’s foreign economic policy is under pressure: geopolitical instability, growing dependencies on China, and stalled trade agreements threaten prosperity and strategic autonomy. This paper calls for an interest-driven realpolitik: concluding trade agreements faster and more pragmatically, diversifying raw material partnerships, clearly separating trade promotion from development policy, and strengthening the defence industry. Only then can Germany remain economically and strategically capable of action,

Benjamin Thake, Alexander Badenheim
September 22, 2025
Facts and Findings
Adobe Stock / Serghei

Parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova – a decisive election, not only for Chişinău

The election on 28 September is crucial for the European Union, too.

Alongside President Maia Sandu, the government and the parliamentary majority of the PAS (Party of Action and Solidarity) have been regarded as reliable and surprisingly resilient partners for the European Union in the Black Sea region over the past three years. The party founded by Maia Sandu has been governing without coalition partners since 2021. However, a repeat of its previous election success with just under 53 per cent of the vote is currently considered unlikely. The presidential election in autumn 2024 also showed that Russia's illegitimate influence – whether through vote buying or massive disinformation campaigns – can potentially be decisive in elections. For this reason, the support from Brussels and many European capitals for the PAS in the election campaign is unprecedented. This is because a democratic and pro-European Republic of Moldova is now considered by the EU to be an important building block for its own security interests in Eastern Europe.

Brigitta Triebel
September 19, 2025
Country reports
IMAGO / SNA

Between nuclear threats and diplomatic initiatives: The Zapad 2025 military exercise in Belarus

Even after the military exercises, the country remains a Russian staging area

The active phase of the Russian-Belarusian military exercise Zapad 2025, held from September 12 to 16, 2025, ended—just as expected—without major incidents. However, in recent weeks, the threat to countries bordering Belarus has reached a new level. On September 10, at least 19 Russian drones, mostly flying over Belarus, penetrated deep into NATO member Poland. According to security experts, Russia likely intended to test NATO’s defensive response. In reaction, NATO announced Operation "Eastern Sentry" to strengthen defense along its eastern flank. Although only 8,000 troops (including just 2,000 Russian soldiers) were deployed in Belarus this time, with an estimated 30,000 more stationed in Russia, the exercise brought back grim memories of Zapad 2021, after which Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine from Belarusian territory. Back then, however, 200,000 troops participated in the drills. This year’s joint exercises were meant to demonstrate just how closely Belarus and Russia now cooperate militarily. It was also a show of force aimed at the West, with Russian leader Putin maintaining a firm grip on his junior partner, Lukashenko.

Gabriele Baumann
September 18, 2025
Country reports
IMAGO / Catholicpressphoto

100 Days of Pope Leo XIV.

Insights into the New Pontificate

On May 18, 2025, Pope Leo XIV was inaugurated into his office with a solemn service at St. Peter’s Square in Rome. By August 26, the first hundred days of the new pontificate had passed. Believers, as well as observers of the Catholic Church, are asking themselves in which direction the first US-American to occupy the Chair of Peter will lead.

Alexander Mathias Görlach, Marian Wendt
September 17, 2025
Country reports
IMAGO / NTB

Norway’s 2025 Parliamentary Election

Stability, Energy, and the Stoltenberg Effect

On September 8, 2025, Norwegians went to the polls to elect a new parliament. The governing Labour Party (Ap), led by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, confirmed its position as the country’s largest political force, winning 28.2 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results from the national election authority. The right-wing populist Progress Party (FrP) emerged as the biggest winner of the night. Boosting its support by 12.3 percentage points, it secured 23.9 percent of the vote, becoming the second-strongest party. The Conservative Party (Høyre), headed by former Prime Minister Erna Solberg, followed in third place with 14.6 percent. Roughly four million citizens were eligible to vote, and turnout reached 78.8 percent, according to official figures released late Monday evening. The election was shaped not only by domestic debates, but also by Norway’s strategic role in Europe’s energy supply and security policy. While not a member of the European Union, Norway is a crucial partner when it comes to gas deliveries, electricity market regulation, and sanctions against Russia.

Christine Leuchtenmüller
September 10, 2025
Country reports
IMAGO / Bestimage

France in a political deadlock after the fall of the French government

Anger, frustration and mistrust

For the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, a French government has been brought down because of a vote of confidence based on Article 49.1 of the Constitution. On 8 September, the National Assembly refused to give its confidence to Prime Minister François Bayrou's cabinet – a historic turning point in French politics. The Élysée Palace announced that President Emmanuel Macron had ‘taken note’ of the government's failure and would ‘appoint a new prime minister in the coming days’. With strikes and blockades announced for 10 and 18 September, intended in particular to express the French people's dissatisfaction with their purchasing power and further economic cutbacks, the question arises as to how Macron now intends to manoeuvre France out of the political impasse and survive until the 2027 presidential elections.

Anja Czymmeck, Max Willem Fricke, Nele Katharina Wissmann
September 9, 2025
Country reports
smarterpix / vepar5

Malawi votes

President, parliament, and communal elections in the world’s poorest democracy

Malawi is part of the decreasing number of African countries which count as stable but imperfect democracies. There is an active electoral contest and the country has prior experience with democratic governmental transitions, which remain possible in the upcoming elections on 16 September 2025. The election is taking place against the backdrop of extreme poverty. The people of Malawi believe that the economic situation has not improved under the current government. The candidates’ and parties’ manifestos are limited in scope and depth, they do not differ drastically from one to the other; many of the candidates are old acquaintances. However, the global geopolitical rivalry, the race for raw materials and rare earths, the growing number of conflicts and the decreasing number of democracies particularly on our neighboring continent all give these elections greater significance than they would have before the war in Ukraine and the inauguration of Trump. 

Dr. Holger Dix
September 8, 2025
Country reports

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