Author Archives: BFoGP

New Blog Post: Climate Finance – Shifting for a Fix

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23625949416_54e933fdff_kIn the second blog post of the series “Global Politics of Climate Change“, our guest contributor, William Hull, sheds light on the most recent developments in climate finance. This is one of the trickier points in climate negotiations, which has historically represented a challenge in cooperation between developed and developing countries.

William explains, in this blog post, how this issue was tackled during the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21) while looking at the next steps in the build-up to the Marrakesh Climate Change Conference (COP22) later this year. The blog post, entitled ‘Climate Finance: Shifting for a Fix’, is available here.

The next blog post in the series will focus on climate action and sustainable development.

(Photo credit: Takver | Flickr)

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Blog Post Series: Global Politics and Climate Change

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The Berlin Forum on Global Politics welcomes the newest contributor to our blog, William Hull, who will write a blog post series on the global politics of climate change throughout the next months, and address a range of topics, from international negotiations and climate finance to sustainable development and security.

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William launches the blog post series with a discussion about the significance of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change as well as the challenges lying ahead in terms of implementation and verification. The blog post, entitled ‘Maintaining the Momentum after the Paris Agreement: The Distance We’ve Come and the Distance Yet to Go’ is available here.

The next blog post in the series will focus on climate finance and be published in June/July.

New Blog Post: TTIP and Sovereignty

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TTIPOur blog post series on sovereignty and global politics comes to a close with an analysis by co-founder Daniel Cardoso on the relationship between trade and sovereignty today. Daniel argues that, when free trade agreements like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are used to advance at all costs the privileges of dominant world forces, sovereignty remains a necessary tool to manage globalization, protect the public interest, and guarantee citizens’ rightful participation in public policymaking.

The blog post, entitled ‘How TTIP Threatens State Sovereignty and Why We Should Be Concerned’, is available here.

(Photo credit: European External Action Service | Flickr)

Blog Post Series: Sovereignty and Global Politics

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leviathan detailThe Berlin Forum on Global Politics is glad to share a blog post series, which will focus on the topic of sovereignty and global politics. Capital, information, goods and people move around the world at incredible speed and in vast numbers. As globalization widens and deepens, regional and global forms of governance attempt to handle the issues and challenges of our times. Against this background, the blog series inquires about the role of sovereignty today: in which ways does this long-standing concept continue to matter?

Stemming from discussions held within the Center for Global Politics (CGP) Alumni Association and inspired by the reflections and work of Prof. Klaus Segbers (Director of the CGP at the Freie Universität Berlin) on this topic, the authors address the role of sovereignty in three areas of global governance: finance, the Internet, and trade.

We will publish a blog post each week, starting today with co-founder Marc Venhaus’ analysis of sovereignty in relation to international financial markets in the post-2008 economic crisis, entitled ‘Sovereignty over Capital Controls: From Orthodoxy to Heresy… and Back Again?’. The blog post is available here.

(Photo credit: Frontispiece from Thomas Hobbes’ 1651 ‘Leviathan’ | United States Library of Congress)

New Blog Post: ‘Failing to Provide Asylum’

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Bengin Ahmad | FlickrCo-founders Daniel Cardoso and Miguelángel Verde Garrido discuss the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe in this post. They argue that the (mis)management of the refugee crisis by the European Union and European governments has little to do with the extent of the challenge and more with being compromised by institutional and identity crises.

The blog post is the start to a series of events, activities, and materials that the Berlin Forum on Global Politics will organize in order to discuss the ongoing refugee crisis.

The post, entitled ‘Failing to Provide Asylum: Why Europe Cannot Manage the Refugee Crisis’, is available here.

(Photo credit: Bengin Ahmad | Flickr)

BFoGP is Now Ready for New Members and Funding!

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charamelody - in our hands - flickrDear friends of the Berlin Forum on Global Politics,

We are very happy to announce that the German state has granted our organization the status of a gemeinnütziger Verein, that is to say, of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization – the legal equivalent in the United States is a 501 (c) organization and in the United Kingdom is a Community Interest Company (CIC) or charity. Being a tax-exempt nonprofit organization enables us to do two important things:

1) allow interested parties to become members, who can contribute to expanding and supporting our efforts;

2) allow for funding of public events and activities as well as research, publications, and projects.

We are enthusiastic about this important development in our organization, since we are confident that it will allow us to better interact with the vast numbers of people who want to better understand and discuss global politics at the academic, expert, and public debate levels. Their interest – your interest – is clearly evidenced by our statistics: in the two years since we launched our website we have already had more than 15000 views from over 130 countries, counted more than 3100 downloads of our publication ‘The Transatlantic Colossus‘ from our website alone, and now count with over 600 supporters on our Facebook page and over 130 in our LinkedIn profile.

During the following weeks we will provide you with our constitutional articles, which explain the reasons for founding the Berlin Forum as well as our goals and means, and will update you regarding:

– how to become a member of the Berlin Forum on Global Politics;

– why we chose the GLS Bank (GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG) to hold our funds;

– how to make donations to fund our activities;

– and, what we intend to do in order to contribute to the public debate on the socio-political implications of the ongoing influx of asylum seekers to Europe and the European Union.

Lastly, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support, which we hope to continue to count with as we strive towards promoting the informed participation of civil society in public debates about global politics throughout the world.

(Photo credit: charamelody | Flickr)

New Blog Post: ‘Muddy Business’

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In this post, co-founder Daniel Cardoso, discusses the reasons behind the environmental disaster in Mariana, one of the worst in Brazil’s history. Dani22526418164_7d9ea23fab_zel argues that, rather than an accident, the catastrophe was the consequence of years of aggressive extractivism, “China Fever”, and flawed public policies.

The post, entitled “Muddy Business: How Corporate and State Failures Led to the Environmental Disaster in Mariana, Brazil”, is available here.

(Photo credit: Senado Federal | Flickr)

Reflecting on NAFTA to Better Understand TTIP

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The Berlin Forum on Global Politics (BFoGP) is excited to announce the launch of a collaborative photography project entitled “Reflecting on NAFTA to better understand TTIP”.

Jonathan Florez, citizen journalist and Who really benefits from the TTIP?photographer, captures in this project the reflections of some of the people who attended a lecture and discussion on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) held by México Via Berlin on 2nd May, 2015. BFoGP co-founders Daniel Cardoso, Marc Venhaus and Miguelángel Verde Garrido were invited to discuss the implications of TTIP, while Prof. Nayar López Castellanos (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) was invited to analyze NAFTA and its consequences for Mexico.

To explore the photography project, click here.

(Photo credit: Berlin Forum on Global Politics & Jonathan Florez | BFoGP)

Drawing Lessons from NAFTA to Better Understand TTIP

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The Berlin Forum on Global Politics (BFoGP) discussed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), on Saturday, May 2, from 19:00, at the Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung in Berlin.

14391291462_2bf9964dd5_bThe event, organized by Mexico Via Berlin, sought to analyze the similarities and differences between TTIP and the North-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), established in 1994 by the United States (US), Canada and Mexico. Prof. Nayar López Castellanos, from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), looked at NAFTA and its consequences while we focused on TTIP. Together we discussed how the case of NAFTA can help us anticipate the type of implications that a free trade agreement like TTIP can carry, not only for the US and the EU, but also for third countries.

We are always expanding our partnerships so as to involve more institutions and people in our projects. Our latest collaboration partner was Jonathan Florez, Berlin-based photographer and citizen journalist, who documented the event and captured, through images, the audience’s conclusions about the debate.

This event was part of a seminar series, organized by Mexico Via Berlin, which examined the work done in the context of the Mexican chapter of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT). Further information about the event and about the seminar series can be found here: http://mexicoviaberlin.org/

Language: English and Spanish

(Photo credit: EFF Photos | Flickr)

Discussing TTIP in Washington

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IMG_1566On 6 February 2015, co-founder Marc Venhaus took part in the Transatlantic Policy Symposium “Beyond Tariffs: Trade Relations and the Transatlantic Relations in the 21st Century” at the BMW Center of German and European Studies at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. He delivered a speech on  “An Unequal Treaty: TTIP and Inequality in Europe”, which is the topic of the most current BFoGP working paper and, in addition to that, discussed pressing transatlantic matters with fellow peers from both the EU and the US. Participating high ranking officials and scholars included, among others, David O’Sullivan (EU Ambassador to the United States), Dr. Philipp Ackermann (Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany), Sir Michael Leigh (Transatlantic Academy Fellow and Senior Advisor, German Marshall Fund) and Dr. Dan Hamilton (Executive Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University).