How to Upgrade EU Benchmarking in Fundamentals: The Case of Judicial Reform in Ukraine

Analitical paper

With this study, UCEP initiates a discussion among key stakeholders who will be involved in developing the agenda of the EU-Ukraine accession negotiations. The authors propose a new approach to the formulation of benchmarks in the Fundamentals cluster, which are currently formulated in a rather general way. Defining clear and measurable indicators in the key cluster, taking into account the national context, will allow Ukraine to move towards EU membership faster, and more efficiently while maintaining the necessary pace of reforms. The authors demonstrate the idea of changing the approach to the formulation of benchmarks on the example of the reform of the judicial system in Ukraine and call on Ukrainian and European experts to discuss improving the EU accession rules. The research was developed by the Ukrainian Center for European Policy in cooperation with the Western Balkan expert Marko Kmezic (University of Graz, Austria) and the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms (Kyiv, Ukraine) with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Ukraine.

The Question of Freedom and Security in Morocco in Times of Multiple and Simultaneous Crises

Actes du colloque national organisé le 14 et le 15 octobre 2022 à Marrakech sous le thème La question de la liberté et la sécurité au Maroc en temps de crises multiples et simultanées par le Centre des Recherches Stratégiques sur la Sécurité et le Terrorisme et la fondation Fatima Al Fihri en partenariat avec la fondation Konrad Adenauer.

Freedom of Navigation in the Black Sea Area and the Strategic Significance of the Danube

Does a potential redesign of trade routes make sense, so that the Danube becomes an alternative entry and exit point into and out of the Black Sea?

Brazil in Focus 02/2024

Legislative power needs attention / Renewable energies in Brazil

The new edition of the Brasil Em Foco series is available for free download. This, the second issue of 2024, features two articles dedicated to the topics of the legislative agenda in Brazil in 2024 and renewable energies in Brazil. The Brasil em Foco series aims to publish monthly articles analyzing the main issues on the political scene, in order to contribute to the democratic debate.

Governance - institutions, actors and strategies

Publication on the theme of governability at a strategic moment for understanding this phenomenon, five years after the first collection of texts.

In 2018, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the collective of political scientists called LEGIS-ATIVO, a project associated with the Voto Consciente Movement, were faced with a crucial question: how could the executive branch carry out its agenda under the leadership of a newly-elected president who was ranting against the basic foundations of what had been understood up to that point as governability? Moreover, how could it be understood that this phenomenon was more complex than the relations between the Planalto and the National Congress? Thus was born, at the beginning of 2019, "GOVERNABILITY - to understand Brazilian politics", a title that gained ground in academia and among political analysts. But five years on, until the dawn of 2024, Brazil has witnessed new chapters of constant "political reform", the extrapolation of the Judiciary as a central actor in the public policy agenda, different conflicts based on an Executive that is intense in its actions, new ways of understanding Governability as a phenomenon and, above all, two forces brought to the forefront in the perception of the phenomenon that once again lends its name to a work by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation: the Armed Forces and International Relations. Faced with such complexity, we present here GOVERNABILITY - Institutions, actors and strategies - with unpublished texts and a very special group of authors.

Raisina Dialogue 2024 - The America Files

Wie der US-Wahlkampf und eine vermeintlich unvermeidliche Rückkehrs Trumps beim Raisina-Dialog in Indien diskutiert wurden

Die US-Präsidentschaftswahl 2024 könnte für das Land und die Welt von entscheidender Bedeutung sein. Die Supermacht befindet sich in einer seltsamen und beispiellosen Situation. Die Hälfte des Landes erkennt die Legitimität des Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten nicht an. Auf dem Papier sind die Wirtschaftsleistung und die Aussichten gut; Tendenz steigend. Die Inflation hat die Geschichte komplizierter gemacht, da Kommentatoren und Wahlkämpfer auf beiden Seiten den Aspekt hervorgehoben haben, der am besten zu ihrer Politik passt. Die internationalen Partner der USA sind zutiefst verunsichert über den künftigen Kurs der Vereinigten Staaten und den wachsenden Geist des Isolationismus. Für das weltumspannende Netzwerk aus Partnerschaften, Freundschaften und Allianzen, das Amerika aufgebaut hat stellen sich daher folgende Fragen: Wie sind die Wiederwahlaussichten von Präsident Biden? Können die Demokraten die Senatsmehrheit halten? Welche Botschaften verfangen im Wahlkampf? Ist Donald Trumps Rückkehr als republikanischer Kandidat unvermeidlich? Welche Rolle werden seine rechtlichen Probleme im Wahlkampf spielen? Können die Republikaner ihre laute und mächtige rechte Flanke kontrollieren oder stehen uns vier Jahre Chaos bevor? Gibt es noch überparteiliche Prinzipien, auf die sich die wichtigsten Partner der USA im Nahen Osten, im Indopazifik und in Europa verlassen können?

Policy Paper PPI N°1: Mujeres indígenas, entre la resistencia y la resilencia

Propuestas y soluciones locales de adaptación al cambio climático lideradas por mujeres indígenas en Latinoamérica

El Programa Regional de Participación Política Indígena presenta este Policy Paper, que destaca los esfuerzos y respuestas de las mujeres indígenas de la región ante el cambio climático en sus comunidades.

Policy Paper PPI N°2: Manejo de bienes comunes y participación juvenil

En la Central de comunidades Chiquitanas Turubó (CCHIT) en el municipio de San José de Chiquitos del departamento de Santa Cruz - Bolivia.

El Programa Regional de Participación Política Indígena presenta este Policy Paper, que revela los hallazgos encontrados en un estudio sobre las comunidades Chiquitanas Turubó, su administración de recursos y la participación de sus jóvenes.

February Briefing

Canada's Value as a Place to Study

KAS Canada Briefings are monthly reports covering important national topics.

Escalation in the Red Sea

The military dimension, the deployment of the Bundeswehr and the calculus of regional players

The deployment of the frigate Hessen to the Red Sea was described in advance as the most dangerous deployment of the German navy in the history of the Bundeswehr and is aimed at protecting funda-mental national interests. This naval mission fundamentally challenges central assumptions and plans of Germany’s defence policy of the past two decades. A return of the Bundeswehr to East Africa was long considered just as unlikely as an air defence scenario against a non-state armed group. Now the Yemeni Houthi militia is confronting the US naval forces with a primarily Iranian arsenal of weapons that is clearly superior in quality to that of many other non-state armed groups. While in terms of de-fence policy, Europe is almost completely tied down along NATO's eastern flank, it is becoming appar-ent that the conflict-ridden region around the Red Sea could pose an additional security challenge in the long term and require additional commitment and resources. After all, the maritime trade route between the Suez Canal and Bab al-Mandab and access to the Indo-Pacific region are of key economic and security importance for Germany and Europe.