CGS Bonn
Uni Bonn

Soft Power

Bonn Power Shift Monitor Analyses
Soft Power and Diplomacy
U.S. Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Relations
Personality and Politics
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Bonn Power Shift Monitor Analyses

The Bonn Power Shift Monitor (BPSM) is a power calculation measure based on eight central indicators. The model is designed to uncover and analyze the shifts in international power relations between the world’s leading industrialized and emerging economies. As a result, the BPSM is able to inform about relative shifts in global power as well as country-specific trends. Based on this measure, the Center for Global Studies publishes country reports and more in-depth power analyses.

Last update: 10/03/2020
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Soft Power and Diplomacy

Soft power has a key role to play in the international politics of the 21st century. While hard power is classically based on military coercion or economic incentives, soft power builds on the forces of attraction that are fed, for example, by the values, culture or leading personalities of a given actor on the international stage.

The research focuses, on the one hand, on the theoretical elaboration and further differentiation of the soft power concept and its central components, such as public diplomacy and personal diplomacy. On the other hand, empirical studies are conducted in order to investigate questions of possible power shifts in the dimension of soft power as well as national soft power capacities and strategies of different states.

Last update: 10/03/2020
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U.S. Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Relations

The research focuses on U.S. foreign relations both past and present. Mindful of historical trends and ideational currents in the practice of U.S. foreign policy, empirical studies on different issues and bilateral relationships are conducted. Particular attention is paid to the U.S. presidency and the role of the president. Transatlantic, especially German-American relations are a major focus of research in this context.

Last update: 10/03/2020
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Personality and Politics

Which role do individual political decision-makers play in international relations? Questions about the influence of individual leaders and their respective personalities on world politics are among the oldest and most controversial in history and political science. Within the context of the research, which is committed to the Bonn School of politics and contemporary history, both conceptual questions about the influence of leading individual are addressed and selected decision-makers and their global political influence in the past and present are examined empirically.

Last update: 10/03/2020