Jahrbuch Internationale Politik

Twenty-five volumes of the biannual Internationale Politik yearbook, supported by the Federal Foreign Office, have been published since 1955. The yearbook aims to provide an authoritative and well-structured overview of developments in world politics occurring between each publication round for all of those in Germany who are interested in foreign policy, international relations, and world events, as well as for experts.

On 11 May 2006, at the presentation of the 2003-2004 edition of the yearbook, State Secretary Georg Boomgaarden from the Federal Foreign Office gave a speech on the new edition. The yearbook includes 39 contributions focusing primarily on the role of the US as a world power, with much attention also paid to the Middle East. Other contributions deal with the difficult endeavors undertaken toward a postwar order in Iraq and the stabilization of Afghanistan, as well as with the region’s tightrope walk between reform and the status quo. The chapter on global issues includes analyses of the globalization of infectious diseases, progress in international environmental politics, and the development of cross-border migration movements, in addition to a contribution on the spread of international terrorism and an analysis of armament and disarmament. The chapter on Europe tackles EU enlargement and the strengthening of the EU as well as the laborious formation of European foreign and security policy. The yearbook achieves a well-rounded overview of world politics through further chapters on various regions.

For the first time, the yearbook also provides readers with charts including tables with key data on worldwide development. Increases in sales and distribution have caused the yearbook’s reach to grow. DGAP members will receive the yearbook on CD-ROM in the future; it will also be made available in the member access section of the DGAP web site. The publisher has introduced download access, subject to a charge, on its own web site.

The 2005–2006 yearbook should renew the commitment to appeal to policy and business decision-makers, media opinion-leaders, and not least of all, practice-oriented academia. In this way it can provide an important contribution to the DGAP’s work at the interface of these different fields. Dr. Josef Braml took over the position of editor-in-chief from Dr. Steffen Angenendt on 1 October 2006.