The 2016 U.S. Presidential Primary cycle demonstrates more than ever the need for a proportional representation electoral system. Our current winner-takes-all framework encourages two broadly based parties, disenfranchising important social movements and discouraging political participation… [Read more]
Peace & Conflict
This section is a platform for interdisciplinary discourse on global peace and conflict, united in the endeavour to discuss possible solutions to pressing security problems.
Europe’s Latest Solution to the Migrant Crisis Isn’t Good Enough
Last week’s controversial EU-Turkey migrant summit resolved to send back all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey without documents. Is this a humanitarian solution? Over 1,012,100 migrants set sail for Europe from Turkey last year. Most… [Read more]
Syria – A Way Out of the Quagmire
In the past few months, major powers involved in the Syrian crisis have met in Vienna in the hope of agreeing on a solution that will bring an end to the Syrian conflict. Meanwhile,… [Read more]
Kiron Education – Discovery of the Year 2015
It is by no means a revolutionary idea that education is the key to integration and independence – yet so many refugees struggle to gain access to it. Asking young people who have recently left… [Read more]
Pessimism – An Obstacle to Peace?
Hertie School students Jekaterina Grigorjeva (Latvia) and Kevin Müller (Germany) were selected as two of the three Junior Ambassadors for the 2016 Munich Security Conference (MSC), under the chairmanship of Hertie School Professor Wolfgang Ischinger.… [Read more]
Subsidiarity in Global Governance
Global governance is expanding fast and in different directions, often without a clear or principled framework to guide institutional creation and change. Bilateral and multilateral treaties as well as international organizations have been growing in number and scope,… [Read more]
After the Revolution: Why We Need a Better Understanding of the Role Civil Resistance Movements Play in Political Transitions
“How to topple a dictator” was the title of a TED talk given by Srdja Popovic (Popovic 2011). As one of the leaders of the nonviolent Serbian student movement that brought down Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, Popovic then proceeded to teach activists from… [Read more]
Can the European Union Come Up with a Real Security Strategy?
It has been five years since the European Union last debated its security strategy. Twelve years have passed since the adoption of the so-called 2003 Solana Strategy “A Secure Europe in a Better World”. The… [Read more]
Franchising Violence: How Boko Haram Became the Local ISIS Affiliate
On January 8th 2015, reports of the killing of some 2000 civilian Nigerians started to trickle in from the northern Nigerian state of Borno. The Sunni Islamic insurgency, Boko Haram, was blamed in what has… [Read more]
Open Government: A New Way of Governing?
In the past few years the idea of opening traditional practices of government to its citizens has played an increasingly dominant role in politics and election campaigns. The hope is to allow citizens to play… [Read more]