In this dossier we take a first systematic stock of Germany's Council presidency from January 1 to June 30, 2007. In the introductory opinion-editorial, Hanns W. Maull and Marco Overhaus present their own assessment. We then juxtapose Berlin's stated goals with the actual results at the end of the term in the eleven most important issue areas.

Contrary to the claims of these peaceful protesters and opponents, the “Group of Eight” (G8) remains a crucial and widely accepted forum of global governance, even though it is in need of profound reform. Most significantly, it has to streamline its agenda, change its public perception from being an exclusive “group” towards being a more inclusive “process” and integrate its work better with existing international organizations. All of these items have been under discussion for some years. The 2007 German presidency has also formulated its reform ideas, but these still have to be carried much further.

Next week, NATO leaders will hold their third summit since the caesura of September 11, 2001, in the Latvian capital Riga in an ongoing effort to transform the Atlantic Alliance. Riga has in common with previous summits that its agenda will be dictated mainly by crisis decisions rather than by a longer-term, deliberative planning process. While Washington (1999) was dominated by the Kosovo war, Prague (2002) by the terrorist attacks in the United States, Istanbul (2004) by the transatlantic pile of shards after the Iraq war, Riga will be overshadowed by the sharply deteriorated security situation in Afghanistan. ...

For more than two and a half years the governments of Great Britain, France and Germany - supported by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Javier Solana - have been negotiating on behalf of the European Union to find a diplomatic solution to the international conflict over Iran's nuclear program. Up to now, they were unable to strike a sustainable deal with Tehran. ...

In cooperation with the Deutschlandfunk, the Chair for Foreign Policy and International Relations produced a radio series on the state of the art of German foreign policy. From August 1 to September 12, 2004, the Deutschlandfunk transmits one essay every Sunday morning. "Deutsche-Aussenpolitik.de" published a dossier which offers access to the essays, background-papers and further information.

On this page we have summarized the positions of Germany's main political parties on key issues of German foreign policy. We also collected and will continue to collect information on the current debate on Iraq and possible other issue which might emerge during the pre-election period...

This dossier is part of a larger effort to map and analyse the contours of Germany's Foreign Policy after unification. In the last six month there have been dramatic changes both within and around Germany, among them the change of government after sixteen years of a Christian Democratic-led coalition, the take-over of the EU-Presidency by the new government on January 1, 1999, the opening of NATO for three new members in Central Eastern Europe and the war in Kosovo...

On 1st January, 1999, Germany took over the EU-Presidency for half a year. While the new government still struggled to get organized, challenges both at home and abroad had profound effects on its leadership role within the first weeks of the presidency...