Audio of the inaugural session of the "Franco-German Observatory of the Indo-Pacific" event series, focussing on the "Indian Perspectives on the Indo-Pacific". Lecture by Prof. Dr. C. Raja Mohan, chairs and moderation: Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar, Prof. Dr. Christophe Jaffrelot.
The lecture took place online on 8 April 2021.

Inaugural event: Indian Perspectives on the Indo-Pacific

Audio-Datei der Veranstaltung: "GIGA Forum
Nach Obama: US-Außenpolitik im Wandel?"

GIGA Forum: Nach Obama: US-Außenpolitik im Wandel?

Roundtable 4: European and US strategies vis-à-vis China and the Chinese reaction to their IndoPacific policies

Franco-German Observatory On The Indo-Pacific Conference 2021 - Roundtable IV

Audio recording of the lecture by Prof. Dr. Steven Ratuva on "The Indo-Pacific Alliance as a New Regional Hegemon: Implications for the Blue Pacific Strategy" as part of the "Franco-German Observatory of the Indo-Pacific" event series by CERI - SciencesPo and GIGA.
The lecture took place online on 4 April 2022.

Chairs & Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Patrick Köllner
Marianne Péron-Doise

The Indo-Pacific Alliance as a New Regional Hegemon: Implications for the Blue Pacific Strategy

Barack Obama’s 2009 visit to Turkey resulted in an Obama-mania in Turkish media, followed by a friendship between Obama and Recep Erdoğan, which was widely reported in the media and emphasised in their rhetoric. In this lecture the speakers Dr. Ryan O’Connor and Dr. Yuri van Hoef is explain the Erdoğan-Obama friendship narrative by interpreting the relationship through the five key components of political friendship: affect, grand project, altruistic reciprocity, moral obligations, and equality. Our guests argue that histories, leadership styles, and political goals diverged to such an extent that an actual political friendship never existed.  

Through sentimental utility theory (SUT), the researchers illuminate the function of friendship narratives and offer insights into how collective emotions produce ingroup identities and generate stability for a state’s population. SUT reveals how Erdoğan utilised the Obama-mania in Turkey to create the idea of a personal bond between Obama and himself, and a link between Obama’s progressive politics and Erdoğan’s policies. This example can be used to show how future research might deploy SUT to make sense of other narratives of friendship and special relationships between states and between state leaders. 

Moderation: 
Dr Alex Waterman is Research Fellow at the GIGA.

WONAGO: Exploring Elites' Use of Friendship Narratives through the Erdoğan-Obama Relationship

Audio recording of the lecture by Prof. Dr. David Capie on "New Zealand’s Indo-Pacific Dilemmas" as part of the "Franco-German Observatory of the Indo-Pacific" event series by CERI - SciencesPo and GIGA.
The lecture took place online on 31 August 2022.

Chairs & Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Patrick Köllner
Dr. David Camroux

New Zealand’s Indo-Pacific Dilemmas

A GIGA Forum is an opportunity for experts to discuss current political, social, and economic matters. They present their research findings on developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, highlighting key details – often from a global perspective. The general public is invited to engage in the discourse.

GIGA Forum "After the War on Drugs"

GIGA Talk "Platforms And Online Workers In India And Africa"

A three-way contest is playing out between states, technology, and citizens – and impacting the very nature of selfhood, citizenship, and democracy. Even as tech shapes new platforms for civic mobilization, it is upending conventional democratic processes, creating new forms of surveillance capitalism, and supercharging the circulation of fake news and inflammatory content. Concomitantly, the tension between place- and likeness-based societies that underpin nation-states, and increasingly heterogeneous and polarized digital societies, is beginning to reach boiling point. Pincodes have been killed by coders, the age of cosmopolitanism is dying on the altar of digitalism, and cyberspace has become the theatre of a new tribalism. As these trends intensify, will digital societies survive, or are they destined for an all-too-brief future? Can a last stand be made to ensure order online? And in a digitally mediated world, can democratic debate be upheld, and the principles of inclusive rule-making preserved?

Speaker:
Dr. Samir Saran (ORF) 

Chair & Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar (GIGA)

Promise, Paroxysm, Peril: Will Digital Societies Survive?

GIGA Forum "Feminist Policy"

At this GIGA G20-T20 side event, our panel will analyse the contributions that India’s G20 Presidency has made to the revival and reform of multilateralism. The experts in this round will explore how these ideas can be developed further under the Indo-German partnership. This event is part of the G20-T20 outreach process, Task Force 3 “Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), Resilience, and Values for Wellbeing”, and the GIGA’s T4T project. 

Speakers:  
Dr. Almut Möller is the State Secretary and Plenipotentiary of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg to the Federation, the European Union, and for foreign affairs. 

Elizabeth Sidiropoulos is the Chief Executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).

Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar is the President of the GIGA, Professor at the Universität Hamburg, non-resident Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), and Honorary Fellow of Darwin College, University of Cambridge.

Moderator: 
Prof. Dr. Sachin Chaturvedi is Director General at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).

India’s G20 Presidency: Reviving Multilateralism through Responsible Leadership

This talk presents the latest findings from our research on governments’ use of fake news laws as a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) tactic. This trend has accompanied autocratisation in places such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. In these countries, governments have ridden the global wave of countering disinformation, exploiting existing information laws or passing new ones to censor and criminalise civil society while seeking to control the flow of information digitally. Together with other draconian laws and tools of digital repression such as surveillance and online smear campaigns, fake news laws increase the costs of public participation that could help keep the executive in check. Facing multiple charges, dissidents and journalists are compelled to fight endless court cases, depleting their energy and limited financial resources as well as being a time sink, further to enduring the detrimental psychological effects of this misuse of legal powers. This talk unpacks these mechanisms and proposes counter-responses to weaponising fake news laws.  

Speakers: 
Dr. Sangeeta Mahapatra is a Research Fellow at the GIGA. 

Dr. Janjira Sombatpoonsiri is a Research Fellow at the GIGA. 

Dr. Andreas Ufen is a Senior Research Fellow at the GIGA. 

Discussants: 
Cathleen Berger is Team Lead for Upgrade Democracy and Research Director on future technologies and sustainabilty at the Bertelsmann Foundation. 

Dr. Ruth Streicher is Senior Programme Officer Asia Division at the Heinrich Böll Foundation. 

Moderator: 
Prof. Dr. Christian von Soest is Lead Research Fellow and Head of Research Programme "Peace and Security" at the GIGA.

GIGA Talk Weaponising Fake News Laws

Seit Russlands Überfall auf die Ukraine, der gewaltsamen Niederschlagung von Protesten in Iran und dem Terrorangriff der Hamas in Israel wird das Thema Sanktionen in der Öffentlichkeit wieder kontrovers diskutiert. Sanktionen sind zum zentralen Instrument der internationalen Politik avanciert – nie zuvor wurden mehr Staaten, Firmen und Verantwortliche ins Visier genommen als im 21. Jahrhundert.

Dieses entscheidende Mittel westlicher und deutscher Außenpolitik ist Gegenstand des neuen Buchs „Sanktionen: Mächtige Waffe oder hilfloses Manöver?“ von Christian von Soest. Er argumentiert, dass Sanktionen zugleich als globales Machtmittel und Ordnungsstifter wirken. Deutschland und andere westliche Sanktionsmächte müssten aber die Glaubwürdigkeit dieses Instruments erhöhen.

Nach einer Vorstellung des Buchs durch den Autor möchten wir mit Ihnen und unserem Panel darin aufgestellte Thesen zu Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Sanktionen und ihre Folgen für die deutsche Außen- und Innenpolitik in der Zeitenwende diskutieren: Was kann der Westen mit Zwang erreichen? Welche Risiken und Nebenwirkungen haben Sanktionen? Wie greifen verschiedene außen- und verteidigungspolitische Werkzeuge ineinander (oder nicht)?

Panel:
Dr. Jana Puglierin ist Leiterin des Berlin Büros und Senior Policy Fellow am European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR).

Dr. Norbert Röttgen, MdB, ist Mitglied der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion und des Auswärtigen Ausschusses im Deutschen Bundestag.

Prof. Dr. Christian von Soest ist Leiter des Forschungsschwerpunkts "Frieden und Sicherheit" am GIGA.

Moderatorin:
Othmara Glas ist Politische Redakteurin bei der Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

Sanktionen: Mächtige Waffe oder hilfloses Manöver?

On 29 May 2024, South Africans voted and an embattled African National Congress lost its majority for the first time since it came to power in 1994. The country will experience its first coalition government at a time when decisive action is needed to combat slow economic growth, rolling power blackouts, high crime, and poverty. The election results will also affect South Africa’s delicate balancing of its foreign policy goals: achieving a rules-based international order, strengthening Africa’s position in the global order, and improving South–South cooperation.  

South Africa is not only an important country that must be engaged with in general, but also one of Germany’s key partners on the African continent. The BRICS member is set to host the G20 in 2025 and has made headlines both for its move to sue Israel before the International Court of Justice and for its position towards Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. What are the implications of South Africa’s election results for its domestic politics and foreign policy, as well as its relations with Europe and Germany? What prospects and challenges do the election results present for collaborative efforts between Europe and South Africa in addressing global challenges such as climate change, security, and human rights?  

These and other questions are at the core of the discussion to which the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and the German Africa Foundation cordially invite you.  

We look forward to your participation and to collectively exploring the future trajectory of South Africa in a rapidly evolving global context.

Welcome Remarks:
Sabine Odhiambo is Secretary General at the German Africa Foundation.

Discussants:
Mohamed Cassimjee is a Geopolitical Consultant and former Diplomat and former Minister Plenipotentiary at the South African Embassy in Berlin.

Qaanitah Hunter is a former Assistant Editor for the major SA online news platform News24 and author of the book Who Will Rule South Africa?

Dr. Maxine Rubin is a Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for African Affairs.

Associate Professor Dr. Zwelethu Jolobe is Head of Political Studies Department at the University of Cape Town.

Moderator:
Prof. Dr. Christian von Soest is Head of Research Programme “Peace and Security” at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA).

The Domestic and International Implications of South Africa’s 2024 Elections

Spitzenpositionen Chinas in vielen Forschungs- und Technologiefeldern machen die Kooperation mit dem Land für deutsche Hochschulen und Forschungsinstitute sehr attraktiv. Indiens Fortschritte in Bereichen wie Nachhaltigkeit, Biotechnologie und Materialwissenschaften stellen ebenfalls gute Anknüpfungspunkte für die Zusammenarbeit dar. Allerdings wurden in jüngster Zeit vor allem die Risiken der internationalen Zusammenarbeit für Deutschland diskutiert, die aus der unterschiedlichen Ausrichtung nationaler Wissenschaftssysteme resultieren. Zur Vermeidung sicherheitsrelevante Risiken in der Kooperation mit China z.B. wurden „due-diligence“-Prüfverfahren empfohlen. Zudem soll die internationale Zusammenarbeit insgesamt stärker strategisch und werteorientiert erfolgen.  

Dieses GIGA Forum beleuchtet mit Expert:innen aus Forschung und Wissenschaftsmanagement die Dynamiken in der Zusammenarbeit mit Partnern aus China und Indien:  

Wie sieht die Wissenschafts- und Technologieentwicklung beider Länder aus? Wie reagieren Politik und deutsche Hochschulen und Forschungsinstitute darauf?  

Welche politischen und ethischen Risiken und Hemmnisse gibt es in der akademischen Kooperation mit Institutionen und individuellen Wissenschaftler:innen aus China und Indien? Wie kann darauf reagiert werden? 

Welche Chancen birgt die Zusammenarbeit deutscher Forschungsinstitutionen mit China und Indien heutzutage? Was sind die Perspektiven für eine weitere Zusammenarbeit?  

Referent:innen: 
Dr. Fabian Falter ist Wissenschaftsmanager an der RWTH Aachen, Abteilung Internationale Strategie, Strategische Projekte und Aktivitäten Indien.

Dr. Katja Lasch ist Leiterin der Außenstelle Neu-Delhi des Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes (DAAD) sowie Leiterin des Deutschen Wissenschafts- und Innovationshauses (DWIH) Neu-Delhi.

Yannick Ringot ist Projektkoordinator des Hamburg Network on Compliance in Cooperation with China (HNC³) an der Universität Hamburg.

Hans Westphal ist Leiter des Deutschen Büros des Indo-German Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC) im DLR Projektträger. 

Moderatorin:
Dr. Margot Schüller ist Associate am GIGA Institut für Asienstudien.

Wissenschaftskooperation mit China und Indien

The passing of American hegemony is heralding a multiplex world or a multi-regional order world. The emerging world order will neither be unipolar nor bipolar. Although multipolarity is rising, the emerging order will be more than simply multipolar. Drawing on the concept of multiplexity, we argue that regions will play an increasingly important role, not merely as theatres of Great Power rivalry, but as relatively autonomous entities in shaping its intensity and scope. In addition to emerging as important sites for order-building, regions are also reorganizing. The Indo-Pacific – or the primary theatre of the U.S.-China rivalry – is seeing the emergence of such a multiplex international order. This regional order is being led and legitimized by the weaker regional powers that are ideologically plural. The Indo-Pacific regional order will be “open” and connected with its neighbouring regions in the Middle East, Europe, and beyond.

Speaker:
Associate Professor Manjeet Pardesi is Head of the Political Science & International Relations Programme, Victoria University of Wellington. He is also Asia Research Fellow, Centre for Strategic Studies, Wellington, and Managing Editor of Asian Security. Currently, he is a visiting scholar at the GIGA.

Moderation:
Dr. Miriam Prys-Hansen is a Lead Research Fellow and Head of the Research Programme "Global Orders and Foreign Policies" at the GIGA.
Dr. David Camroux is Honorary Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor, Sciences Po-CERI.

Regional Orders and Great Power Rivalry in a Multiplex World

Civilizations are polyglot, not unitary. They are marked by a balance of practices not a balance of power. But under conditions of uncertainty, fear and intense political or intellectual competition they can be made politically what they are not in reality. In his lecture Professor Katzenstein (Cornell University) will illustrate his argument with specific reference to two civilizations: Sinic and Anglo-American. They suggest that we are perhaps witnessing the emergence of a civilization of multiple modernities that is both incubated by and stretching beyond East and West.

Peter Katzenstein is the Walter S. Carpenter Professor of International Studies at Cornell University and a former President of the American Political Science Association.

Lecture by Professor Peter Katzenstein Civilizations in World Politics: "Beyond East and West"

The conflict in the Middle East is one of the most long-lasting, pressing and seemingly intractable issues of our times. In his lecture “A Westphalia for the Middle East”, world-renowned historian Prof. Brendan Simms (University of Cambridge) will investigate how lessons from international geopolitical challenges in history could be used to inform steps toward a current resolution. Analysing the experience of confessional and power-political strife in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Central Europe, he will draw from the analogous nature of the conflicts and constellations in both epochs. Specifically, the aim is to determine how conflict-resolution models – chiefly the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years War, and its mechanisms of politico-confessional co-existence – could serve as an inspiration for attempts to solve the geopolitical and sectarian challenges of the contemporary Middle East.

Brendan Simms is Professor in the History of European International Relations, Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Peterhouse. He is the author of seven single-authored books and several co-authored volumes, including: Europe. The struggle for supremacy, 1453 to the present (Allen Lane, London, 2013, Deutsche Verlags Anstalt, 2014); Europa am Abgrund. Plädoyer für die Vereinigten Staaten von Europa (with Benjamin Zeeb) (C.H.Beck, Munich, 2016); Britain’s Europe. A thousand years of conflict and cooperation (Allen Lane, London, 2016); and Donald Trump. The making of a world view (with Charlie Laderman) (Endeavour, 2017, Deutsche Verlags Anstalt).

Lecture by Professor Brendan Simms: "A Westphalia for the Middle East"

The GIGA is an independent social science research institute based in Hamburg, Germany. We analyse political, social, and economic developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as global issues.

German Institute for Global and Area Studies GIGA

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