Barbara KUNZ
Former Research Fellow at the Study Committee on Franco-German Relations Cerfa
Research interests :
- French-German Defence Cooperation
- German Foreign and Security Policy
- France and Germany in CSDP and NATO
- Nordic countries' security policies, notably Sweden's
- Nordic-Baltic security issues
Barbara Kunz was a research fellow at Cerfa from April 2015 to July 2019. She holds a PhD from Stockholm University/Sweden and a Master's degree from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. She is a Member of the steering committee OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions.
Prior to joining Cerfa, she spent several years working for the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (Stockholm, Sweden), Bertelsmann Stiftung (Gütersloh, Germany) and Genshagen Foundation (Genshagen close to Berlin, Berlin) respectively. Barbara Kunz was a visiting fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations/Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC as well as at the Centre for International Affairs in Warsaw.
How can France and Germany contribute to reaching the goal of European strategic autonomy? This key question has been guiding the work with the present report. In the light of a more demanding security environment, but also a rare momentum for further European integration, Berlin and...
In the week following Trump’s election, Ifri published a study to identify the likely changes in U.S. foreign policy. From the outset, this election appeared as a change in the U.S.’ trajectory, with consequences on the power relations and functioning of the international system.
According to realist premises, the United States has an interest in remaining the world's only superpower, thus creating the need to manage and maintain unipolarity. The pursuit of this grand strategy, however, required the U.S. to adapt its various strategies to individual states. Poland,...
Nordic countries share the same perception, that Russia does not pose an immediate threat but that its actions nevertheless remain worrying.
France’s current presidential campaign has created an unprecedented situation fuelled by revelations and a total absence of restraint, but it has not truly taken account of the disruptions of the last year: Brexit, the attempted coup in Turkey, the election of Donald Trump, the recapturing of...
Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated dramatically in recent years. The institutional foundations of cooperative security in Europe and the rules and principles they represent are rapidly disappearing.
The 2016 White Paper on security policy and the future of the Bundeswehr is testament to Berlin’s declared will to play a more active role internationally, to assume more responsibility and to provide leadership in close concertation with its partners in Europe and the world.
Recent debates in Germany about the future of the country’s security and foreign policy have aroused interest abroad, especially in France.
Russia’s revisionist foreign policy and military build-up has considerable security implications for the Baltic Sea region, including for Sweden.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) represents the perfect framework for discussion of pan-European security issues thanks to its unique composition - fifty-seven member states of the Euro-Atlantic sphere, including the United States and Russia. The OSCE remains...
On Germanys second channel, ZDF, Barbara Kunz enlarges upon the French presidential election in May.
The leaders of the extreme right-wing AfD party, Alternative for Germany, intend to take advantage of the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin to challenge the German Chancellors welcoming policy : 1 million refugees arrived between 2015 and 2016, they argue that in welcoming them, she...
The chancellor has launched the battle for the legislative elections. In front of the 1000 delegates of her party (CDU), Angela Merkel was firm on immigration in order to counter the populist right.
Primary elections of the French conservative party "Les Républicains": analysis by Barbara Kunz.
In view of the Brexit and Donald Trump, Angela Merkel announced her candidacy for a 4th mandate to the Chancellery Sunday November 20th. What are her chances? What support can be expected from the German population and parties? Would she be a bulwark against the right-wing populist AfD?
...One year before the general elections and even if Angela Merkel remains a favourite, the political scene in Germany seems more fragmented than ever.
The 3rd of October is a national holiday celebrating German unity since 1990. What has the mass arrival of migrants these past years revealed about German society?
The party Alternative für Deutschland founded only three years ago against the Euro unites Germans against Berlin's open-door policy. And on the eve of new elections, more and more of those that normally don't vote are joining them.
After the recent electoral setbacks for Angela Merkel which saw the party Alternative for Germany (AfD) enter yet another two regional parliaments (Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), is there a possiblity for Germany to become just like the other European countries?