Erstmals scheiterte Deutschland bei einer Kandidatur für den UN-Sicherheitsrat. Die Erklärungen für die deutliche Niederlage kreisen um die späte Kandidatur, mangelndes Kanzler-Engagement oder die deutsche Israel-Politik. Doch diese verlorene Wahl lässt sich nicht nur auf eine Mängelliste reduzieren. Sie legt etwas Tieferliegendes frei: die Dissonanz zwischen dem deutschen Selbstbild und wie…

Why do some extremists deradicalise when confronted with counter-narratives or positive intergroup contact, while others entrench even deeper into their beliefs? While the external factors that pull people away from radical milieus are well documented, the internal psychological defences used to resist doubt are frequently overlooked. Drawing on interviews with former extremists, this Spotlight…

What happens when digital systems outgrow the Earth that sustains them? Computing has always consumed energy and water, but the growing ambitions of the AI industry are pushing demand to an unprecedented scale. As pressures mount, data centers in orbit around the Earth have been pitched as a solution. But space is no escape, and what is framed as a technical fix risks entrenching digital…

Georgia has been an EU candidate country since December 2023. In 2024, the Georgian parliament passed the so-called foreign agent law, which was modelled on Russian legislation. Reporters Without Borders documented more than 600 attacks on journalists in ​​a single year. Both the ruling party and the opposition claim to support Europe. However, Georgia’s candidacy was effectively terminated in…

Die afghanischen Auslandsvertretungen in Deutschland werden zunehmend durch Taliban-Vertreter kontrolliert. Dies betrifft die Botschaft in Berlin, das Generalkonsulat in Bonn sowie das Generalkonsulat in München, wie verschiedene Medien berichten (zum Beispiel: Tagesschau; Deutschlandfunk/ARD-Recherche; Reuters; DIE ZEIT ). Die Kontrolle der Vertretungen durch die Taliban kann nicht auf die Frage…

Recent protests in Iran have been increasingly dominated by voices that represent a backlash against the feminist foundations of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. What began as a movement centered on women’s rights, bodily autonomy, and resistance to systemic gender discrimination has gradually been reframed through a masculinist narrative that frames itself as the sole voice of Iran. In doing…

The U.S. nuclear umbrella isn’t watertight, the French Eurodeterrent isn’t fully stretched out, and a German A-bomb would have painful consequences for the country. This PRIF-Blog therefore concludes that the triad of an effective European conventional defense, arms control, and active diplomacy offers the best protection against nuclear threats from Russia. Especially since Trump has withdrawn…

The Strait of Hormuz has been blocked by both Iran and the US. The result is a disruption of a large share of the supply of global crude oil and gas, but also petrochemical feedstock materials for fertilizers. While this energy and resource shock is truly global in reach, its impact is felt differently in different world regions, as this joint PRIF blog article shows.