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.

All my publications
03/06/2019
By: Claire DEMESMAY, Barbara KUNZ, (eds.)

While international multilateralism is under strain, it is vital for France and Germany to defend it, since it is the most appropriate system for preserving their interests – particularly in terms of welfare, security, prosperity and environmental protection. Against this backdrop, three...

22/01/2019
By: Barbara KUNZ, Ronja KEMPIN

On 22 January 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sign the Treaty of Aachen on “Franco-German Cooperation and Integration.” The document is set to complement the original Elysée Treaty from 1963, signed by President Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad...

29/10/2018

The return of more conflictual relations between Russia and the West following Russia’s intervention in Eastern Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea has led to a deterioration in the strategic environment for Northern European countries, particularly in the Baltic Sea Region and the Arctic.

16/10/2018
Due to its size and economic and political weight in Europe, Germany is an important actor in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). Berlin has chosen to play an active role: the Bundeswehr’s presence in Lithuania as part of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP), but also proposals pertaining to...
29/08/2018

When the German president, foreign minister, and defense minister gave speeches at the 2014 Munich Security conference—speeches now recognized as watershed moments in Germany security policy—hope began to blossom in France. Would German defense and security policy finally become “normal?” Many...

24/07/2018

The 1970s were a decade of anti-war movements. Willy Brandt received the Nobel Peace Prize for his détente policy toward the Eastern Bloc – and West German defense spending peaked at 3.13 percent of GDP in 1975. Clearly, those days are long gone.

20/04/2018
By: Frédéric CHARILLON, Claire DEMESMAY, Laure DELCOUR, Laura Lale KABIS-KECHRID, Barbara KUNZ, Stefan MEISTER, Jana PUGLIERIN, Dorothée SCHMID

In light of the current instability on Europe’s borders and uncertainties about the international role of the US under the administration of President Donald Trump, it is high time for Franco-German foreign policy initiatives. With the formation of a new German government, a window of...

12/04/2018

In 2016, the European Union issued its Global Strategy, the Union’s latest foreign and security policy strategy document. The strategy “nurtures the ambition of strategic autonomy for the European Union”. American policymakers’ feelings about these aspirations are, to say the least,...

31/01/2018

Attitudes vis-à-vis Russia expressed in the public sphere are heterogeneous, in France more so than in Germany. In both France and Germany, the general public is by and large skeptical of Vladimir Putin and his policies. The picture is more diverse in the political realm. In Germany, there ...

All my medias
21/01/2019
By: Barbara KUNZ, quoted by Guy Chazan in Berlin and Victor Mallet in Paris for Financial Times

When Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron sign a new Franco-German treaty in the historic city of Aachen on Tuesday, there will be much soaring rhetoric about the deepening ties between the two countries. To critics, though, the Treaty of Aachen is thin gruel. Anyone hoping for a new, tighter...

03/06/2018
By: Barbara KUNZ, Interview by Erik Eenlo, BNS, Lennart Meri Conference

Nicolas Sarkozy used to promote himself as a transatlanticist or anglophile French president. Emmanuel Macron seems to have taken this approach a step further. Macron appears to have taken upon France and himself the responsibility of not allowing Britain and more importantly, the United...