Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS) has its origins in the critique of traditional aid interventions and is aimed at overcoming related deficiencies of aid by avoiding parallel administrative and decision making structures. It is commonly understood not merely as a financing instrument but also as...

The need to better adapt EU development policy to the varying levels of development of partner countries (“differentiation”) and the extent to which middle-income countries (MICs) should continue to receive EU aid have become contentious issues of the EU’s new development policy agenda as...

The European Union (EU) is in crisis mode. Its capacity to implement domestic reforms and its position as a global power are being severely undermined by centrifugal forces within Europe and the risk that the EU will disintegrate. Euroscepticism and populism abound; the reactions to the refugee...

With the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU will define not only the financial but also the political priorities until 2030. Which political objectives the EU intends to pursue in the future will therefore be a key issue during the MFF negotiations. The 2030 Agenda for...

The EU is one of the leading global players in international development, trade, peace and security. Therefore, a key part of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is the one reserved for action beyond EU’s borders. This budget heading is called ‘Global Europe’ (also referred to...

The European Green Deal conveys the EU's ambition to adjust and "green" its economic growth trajectory and become climate-neutral by 2050, as part of its contribution to the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. While being ambitiously pursued within the Union's own borders, the...

The Security Strategy adopted by the European Council in late 2003 underlines the importance of conflict prevention and civil, but also – wherever necessary – military intervention in weak or failing states. The new Security Strategy recommends that foreign and security policy be more...

Although Latin America is the world’s most democratic developing region and democratization has also caused an economic dividend, many Latin American democracies have a precarious basis of legitimacy. While most Latin American states are not as fragile nor as repressive as in some other...

While the emerging democracies of Southeast Asia still are characterised by legitimacy crises or have already collapsed, a higher level of political stability persists in most of the region's autocracies. In most countries of South-East Asia, however, the state's monopoly on the legitimate use...

Unlike China and Russia, India is a democratic country, which could act as an important partner in international democracy promotion. Despite increasing requests from the United States and European governments, the promotion of democracy has not so far had a high priority in India’s foreign...