Chinese foreign policy is at the crossroads of regional interests and global power rivalry in the Middle East, especially in Iran. China's interests in the Middle East increasingly collide with those of the US, which has brought about a significant re-orientation of Chinese foreign policy on...

Die Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Union (EU) haben am 16. Januar 2024 beschlossen, im Rahmen der Gemeinsamen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik (GSVP) einen Beitrag zur Sicherstellung der Freiheit der Schifffahrt im Roten Meer zu leisten. Seit November 2023 greifen dort jemenitische...

Germany is being met with rejection from the governments of Arab states when it calls for human rights to be respected. If those being addressed do not outright refuse to engage in dialogue, they usually rely on four patterns of argumentation to ward off corresponding demands: (1) the human...

It has become cliché to argue that Turkish-Iranian relations oscillate between a controlled rivalry and limited cooperation. However, in Iraq and Syria, rising tensions between Turkey and Turkey-affiliated groups on the one hand and Iran and Iran-backed groups on the other, have put the two...

Low-carbon hydrogen has emerged as an important component of EU decarbonisation plans. It also adds a new element to the EU’s external energy policy, given that a sub­stantial share of Europe’s future hydrogen requirements will need to be met with imports. In this context, the Eastern...

NATO’s 2023 summit in Vilnius was dominated by Russia’s war against Ukraine. The summit in Washington, D.C., in July 2024 will be influenced by an additional major conflict in NATO’s neighbourhood: the war in Gaza and the related heightened tensions in the Middle East. These have also...

Mittlere Mächte sind einflussreiche Akteure in der internationalen Politik. Auf den Angriffskrieg Russlands gegen die Ukraine oder auf den Gaza-Krieg reagierten gewichtige Staaten Lateinamerikas oder Afrikas - so Brasilien oder Südafrika - nicht im Einklang mit westlicher Politik. Die zwölf...