Issues

“Whether for humanitarian, development policy, economic reasons or out of self-interest, it is necessary to contain the spread of diseases. As a community of nations, we have a joint responsibility to do so”, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin this May. This is not the only statement demonstrating how the international community of nations increasingly turns its attention to establishing and protecting Global Health architecture, in which Germany plays a central role.

In 2018, at least the cinema allowed us to experience what Sub-­Saharan Africa could possibly look like: paradisiacal conditions and a highly developed civilisation that uses its immense resource wealth to provide its own population with a life in freedom and prosperity and to defend this achievement from the outside world. Unfortunately, reality does not reflect the utopian conditions enjoyed by the Kingdom of Wakanda in the film “Black Panther”.

The first two years of Donald Trump’s term as the 45th president of the United States have seriously damaged Europe’s confidence in the US as a partner, and put a strain on transatlantic relations. However, this review of American foreign policy under Trump, which takes a look at how Europe and the US are actually cooperating in five regions and five policy fields, reveals a differentiated picture with some rays of hope.

Die Beiträge zu dieser Sonderausgabe der Auslandsinformationen (Ai) beleuchten das Thema Migration aus unterschiedlichen Blickwinkeln.

Die ersten zwei Jahre Donald Trumps als 45. Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten haben das Vertrauen der Europäer in die USA als Partner stark in Mitleidenschaft gezogen und die transatlantischen Beziehungen belastet. Die vorliegende Bestandsaufnahme zur amerikanischen Außenpolitik unter Trump, die sich der tatsächlichen Zusammenarbeit zwischen Europa und den USA in fünf Regionen und fünf Politikfeldern widmet, zeichnet dennoch ein differenziertes Bild mit einigen Lichtblicken.

The liberal world order is in crisis. Signs of internal disintegration combined with new external challenges are creating a maelstrom of conflicting interests that certainly gives grounds for concern. The fact that, now of all times, the United States is increasingly abandoning its role as defender and guarantor of the “Pax ­Americana” is seriously exacerbating the situation and poses the question: who will save the liberal world order?

According to United Nations estimates, two thirds of humanity will live in cities in 2050. In 1950, it was only one third. During the same period, the number of metropolises could rise from 28 to more than 40 (and by “metropolis”, we mean a settlement area of more than ten million inhabitants). While the number of people who live in urban areas is continuously rising, the rural population is noticeably shrinking.

Vor genau 40 Jahren begann die Reform- und Öffnungspolitik der Volksrepublik China. Sie bereitete nicht nur den Weg für die Befreiung hunderter Millionen Menschen aus der Armut, sondern leitete auch Chinas Entwicklung zur zweitgrößten Volkswirtschaft der Welt ein. Während Deng Xiaoping, der Urheber der Reformpolitik, jedoch noch Zurückhaltung in der Weltpolitik propagierte, präsentiert sich das heutige China unter der Führung von Staatspräsident Xi Jinping selbstbewusster denn je.

The “golden age of security”, as the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig characterised the time before the First World War, ended just over 100 years ago. After the atrocities of two world wars and the end of the so-called Cold War, many hoped that the cessation of the East-West conflict would herald the beginning of a new era of security – but those remaining hopes were shattered no later than the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Will we work only a few hours a week one day because robots and algorithms do most of our work for us? How will digitalisation change our interactions, political decision-making processes, and geopolitical contexts? Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. Nevertheless, the contributions to this issue do not limit themselves to the current state of digitalisation, but venture a look into the digital future.