Dear readers and subscribers,

after more than ten years, and well over 500 weekly digests on German and European foreign policy, deutsche-aussenpolitik.de will have to close, if not its website, then at least its two major services, the Weekly Digest and our archive. Over many years, we benefitted from generous outside financial support, primarily from the ASKO Europa Foundation, which en-abled us to build our project into a recognised source of information and authoritative analysis on German and European foreign policy, notably through our electronic journal German For-eign Policy in Dialogue, our weekly News Digest and our archive. Two years ago, lack of fol-low-on outside finance obliged us to downsize the project: we closed our electronic journal and cut down on peripheral services, such as the databases on German foreign policy links and experts, but we were able to continue the two most basic services and keep you and your interest engaged.

At present, our Digest has a followership of about 2,300 subscribers, in Germany and in Europe, but almost as many also in America and beyond.

Now, we have to accept that financial constraints no longer will allow us to continue even on the present, reduced level. Ours is not an expensive project (monthly costs are about € 1300.-, which go to the enthusiastic and enormously committed students who do most of the work for the project). Yet we have not given up hope to be able to come back, possibly in a new incarnation, but with the same basic mission of providing regular services of information and analysis, and of offering a virtual space for exchanges and debate on German foreign pol-icy in Europe and beyond.

If you want to help us in this endeavour to come back again, the most important thing you could do would be to let us know that you would like us to remain in business, or to come back. Please tell us if you found our services useful and why! This helps us to make our case vis-a-vis potential donors and supporters. Also, let us know if you have ideas about possible sources of financial support. You can reach us via our public email address, which is dap@uni-trier.de.

Thank you for your support through all those years! We much value your faithful sup-port and your continuing interest in our services. We hope to remain in touch with you.

Sincerely yours, Hanns W. Maull, Sebastian Harnisch,
Christine Schuster and the deutsche-aussenpolitik.de team

This week Turkish President Gul travelled to Germany for a three-day visit including a meeting with its German counterpart Wulff and Chancellor Merkel. During their talks, Merkel and Gul discussed the integration of Turkish migrants in Germany, the deterioration of Turkish-Israeli relations and the prospect of Turkey’s accession to the EU. While Gul emphasized his country’s wish to join the union, Merkel dismissed this idea, insisting instead on a 'strategic partnership'.

Gul's visit coincided with the 50th anniversary of the ‘Turkish-German labor recruitment agreement’, which paved the way for the immigration of a large number of Turkish workers to Germany. Commemorating the agreement, both Presidents highlighted the good relations between their countries, although Wulff also faced some criticism concerning the German language test for migrants and the European visa policy. Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Schäuble met with his Turkish counterpart to sign an agreement on double taxation.

A specter is haunting Europe - the specter of default in the eurozone. At the core of the problem is Greece - one of the smallest yet most heavily indebted economies in Europe. The country desperately needs a next aid payment of $11 billion to avoid running out of cash within weeks, but negotiations between the Greek government and the 'troika' of the European Union, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund have stalled. Considered unthinkable not too long ago, a Greek default now seems imminent - a subsequent exit from the eurozone no longer improbable.

Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron were right about Libya, and Angela Merkel and Guido Westerwelle were wrong. The NATO intervention - messy as it was - achieved its objective, which was both very limited and very clear: to prevent an impending massacre by a deranged despot of his own people. Yes, there has been some 'mission creep', but the UN Security Council mandate was broad and open to different interpretations.

This archive contains media articles and primary documents on German foreign policy. It can be searched by title, author, keyword and full-text.