Federal Association for Security Policy at Universities
| Federal Association for Security Policy at Universities (BSH) |
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| legal form | Think tank |
| Seat | Berlin |
| founding | 30./31. March 1985 in Munich
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| Board | Federal Chairman: Lukas Huckfeldt
Deputy Federal Chair: Désirée Hoppe, Lea Konrad, Sophie Witte |
| Website | www.sicherheitsppolitik.de |
The Federal Association for Security Policy at Universities (BSH) is the largest youth network of foreign and security policy- oriented university groups at German universities and colleges . Its work as a non-partisan umbrella organization is indirectly funded by the German Bundestag . Membership is free and is open to all enrolled students , doctoral candidates and university staff. On October 9, 2008, the BSH was selected by Federal President Horst Köhler as the location in the Land of Ideas .
purpose
As a security policy youth network, the Federal Association for Security Policy at Universities sees itself as a mediator and multiplier of foreign and security policy-relevant topics for science, politics and society.
According to its statutes, its aim is:
"[...] to conduct public relations work in all questions of foreign, security and defense policy at universities and in the political arena and to promote the security policy discourse in the academic environment."
As an academic forum, the association intends to promote an interdisciplinary debate across society through lectures, colloquia, seminars, excursions and scientific publications.
Mission statement
The association and the university groups associated with it represent the values of the free democratic basic order and work in a non-partisan and non-denominational way.
The basic program decided by the extraordinary general meeting on October 28, 2012 states:
“The BSH relies on a comprehensive security concept in its work. The plurality of its members and the large number of academic backgrounds united in the BSH allow the association to shed light on security issues in an interdisciplinary manner and thus do justice to their complexity. "
The engagement in the association is basically voluntary.
structure
The highest body of the BSH is the Federal Assembly, which meets once a year from delegates and guests from all university groups. According to the statutes, the Federal Assembly annually elects the federal executive, which is responsible for the organization of the work at the federal level. The federal executive board consists of a chairman and several deputy chairmen. The current federal executive committee consists of four elected deputy chairmen with the departments of university group work, academies, seminars and excursions as well as publications. The board members and their respective departments are assigned representatives who support them in their work. The representatives are appointed for one year by the federal executive committee. The university groups in the BSH design and determine their content and organizational work independently. They can use funds from the federal association to finance their activities. The funds are administered by the Association of Reservists of the German Armed Forces as the recipient of the federal grant.
history
prehistory
The history of foreign and security policy university groups in West Germany begins in 1959 with the establishment of the Independent University Groups for Military Studies and in 1962 with the Ring of Defense Policy University Groups . The establishment of the Federal Association of Security Policy University Groups is a further step towards a foreign and security policy university organization. However, the three predecessor organizations did not exist and are therefore not direct predecessor organizations of the BSH.
Founding and predecessor BSR
The Federal Working Group for Student Reservists (BAGStudRes) was founded on March 30, 1985 by 27 students from the universities of Aachen, Gießen, Mainz, Heidelberg, Augsburg, Regensburg, Munich, Kiel, Nuremberg-Erlangen, Braunschweig, Hanover, Göttingen, Bonn, Bielefeld, Cologne and Lippe in the premises of the medical academy of the Bundeswehr in Munich. In addition to the head office in Bonn , an office was set up in Bielefeld . The "BAGStudRes" (abbreviated "BSR") existed until 2005 and is the predecessor organization of the Federal Association for Security Policy at Universities. In the course of the opening of the BSR to unserved students, the BSR renamed itself the Federal Association for Security Policy at Universities in 2005 and adopted new statutes. Its seat is in Berlin today.
Science and security
The Science and Security series (WiSi) was published regularly between 2005 and 2014. A total of seven anthologies of the series have been published by the Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag . a. on the topics of media and terrorism, German-Israeli security relations and the age of the armed forces.
logo
The BSH logo, which shows a stylized owl and a hedgehog, was adopted by the BSR. While the owl also embodies insight as a symbol of wisdom, the hedgehog stands for defensiveness and astuteness.
Events
University group events
The university groups and initiatives come together under the umbrella of the BSH. The university groups (HSGn) are independent student groups who deal with the topic of security and foreign policy at their university location. They are free in the specific design of their work. Frequently used formats are panel discussions, excursions or lectures that bring interested students closer to the topic of security policy and offer space for mutual exchange. The initiatives differ from the HSGs in terms of their status within the BSH. They form the preliminary stage to a university group in order to initially consolidate the work at the university and in the team. If this works well, they will be appointed to the university group by the elected federal board on request and from this point on they will be allowed to use the BSH's corporate design. As of March 2020, the BSH unites 26 university groups and four initiatives. With their events, these reached an average of 1,800 interested people each semester and dealt with topics such as disinformation and cyber, space security, Brexit, civil conflict management or the security challenges in the Arctic. Excursions give students the chance to take a look at the institutions of security policy. Various university groups visited u. a. the Federal Ministry of Defense, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance and the local fire brigades. The university groups are also represented at major events such as the Peterberger Talks, thus promoting an intergenerational exchange on security policy.
College Group of the Year
One HSG has been named University Group of the Year every year since 2011. In addition to the number of events held, etc. a. the public relations work of the university group is taken into account. So far, award winners have been, for example, the Working Group for Security Policy at the University of Münster (ASIUM) (2018) and the University Group for Security and Foreign Policy in Bremen (2019).
Basic academy
The Security Policy Basic Academy is a four-day seminar that takes place three times a year in Berlin and gives students the opportunity to come into contact with the broad field of foreign and security policy for the first time and to discuss them with top-class speakers from research and practice. The lectures and discussions of the seminar deal thematically with fundamental questions of German foreign and security policy, from traditional basic lines to current conflicts and challenges of the future. The structure of the seminar is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. In the theoretical part, researchers from think tanks and consultancies, scientists from universities and experts from practice present the basics of security policy and current hot spots, deepen them and give an insight into their scientific work and their experiences on site. In the practical part, security policy is brought to life through visits to embassies, federal ministries, the Bundestag and other relevant institutions.
Advanced Academy
The Security Policy Advanced Academy is a four-day seminar that has been held annually in Berlin since 2011, which offers students the opportunity to gain in-depth insight into a special, annually changing topic of foreign and security policy. In the seminars offered by the BSH, the advanced academy builds on the fundamentals set in the basic security academies and enables a deeper academic insight into the world of security policy. Like the basic academy, the advanced academy is divided into a theoretical and a practical part.
Seminar series Economy & Security
The "Economy & Security" seminar series has been highlighting the interdependencies between the two subject areas once a year since 2012. One focus is on the design of security and economic policy and the influence that corporate decisions have on German security policy. The main topic of the seminar varies annually. Treated were u. a. the security policy topics "Arms Procurement and Armaments Markets" (2018) and "Cyber and Critical Infrastructure" (2019), whereby the focus is not on economic interests but on security policy implications.
Cooperation seminar
Since 2016, the BSH has been holding an annual seminar on a current security policy topic in cooperation with the Bundeswehr Information Center (ZInfoABw) in Strausberg. The focus is on the different perspectives and approaches of various institutions and ministries, as well as the scientific classification of current developments. During the seminar, the participants have the opportunity to deal in detail with a specific subject area of German foreign and security policy. The main topic so far has been a. the Common Security and Defense Policy of the EU (CSDP) and PESCO (2018) as well as the Franco-German partnership and the importance of the leadership duo for Europe (2019).
Armed Forces Seminar
The annual seminar in Koblenz is another pillar of the basic security work of the BSH. It is organized and carried out together with the Center for Inner Guidance (ZInFü) of the Bundeswehr. The aim of the seminar is to enable the participants to get to know the Bundeswehr as an actor in security policy. In particular, the concept of internal guidance as a model for soldiers is highlighted. In addition to the content on the basic principles of German security policy, the integration into the collective defense system NATO and integration into the EU, the legal aspects of the Bundeswehr missions abroad and their legitimation are also the subject of the comprehensive seminar program.
Joint Cooperation
In cooperation with the Multinational CIMIC Command of the German Armed Forces in Nienburg, the BSH offers students and young graduates the opportunity to participate in the international exercise Joint Cooperation within the framework of civil-military cooperation . As part of the Joint Cooperation exercise, around 350 CIMIC and civilian missions and aid workers from over 20 EU and NATO member states train joint civil-military cooperation in a fictitious crisis scenario. The exercise combines planning and management processes at staff level with exercise elements for practical implementation. More than 120 role-players from municipal administration, business, the blue light organizations and the population of the neighboring districts represent a uniquely realistic exercise scenario. Joint Cooperation is NATO-wide largest multinational civil-military cooperation exercise.
Simulation "UN Mission HQ"
The two-week simulation "UN Mission HQ" is part of the two-year general staff training at the Bundeswehr Leadership Academy in Hamburg, the course for future Bundeswehr executives. The aim of the course, in which representatives of the BSH regularly take part, is to prepare future staff officers for assignments in United Nations peacekeeping operations. These operations are carried out as "integrated missions" to ensure the effectiveness of the United Nations' peacekeeping efforts. In order to make the exercise as realistic and operational as possible, officers of the Bundeswehr as well as members of the police, the THW, the DRK and other civil organizations take part. The aim is not only to give the participants an insight into the role of the Bundeswehr in the context of blue helmet operations, but also in the interplay of military and civilian measures in the context of UN missions. The course thus offers a comprehensive insight into the planning culture of the United Nations and the related political and operational aspects.
Excursions
In April 2019, a group of 20 participants traveled to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as part of the BSH's I. International Security Policy Excursion to gain detailed insights into the security policy situation on site and the German engagement on NATO's eastern flank. The program of the six-day trip included a. Visits to the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, the reinforcement of the Air Policing Baltic States, the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, the German Embassy in Vilnius, the German part of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force of NATO and the NATO Force Integration Unit.
Publications
The association has set itself the task of contributing to the academic discussion on security policy and stimulating public debate on security policy issues. For this purpose, he not only organizes events, but also established a wide range of publications, which are mainly served by the young scientists organized in the university groups of the BSH. In this way, the BSH makes an important contribution to entry into scientific and journalistic publishing for young academics.
The BSH was awarded the title Selected Landmark in the Land of Ideas for its series of publications by the Federal President, the Federal Government and German business in particular for its journalistic activities as part of the Science and Security project .
Golden owl
The Federal Board of Management of the BSH regularly honors outstanding theses on security issues with the "Golden Owl" award for young talent . The prize is awarded every two years in the bachelor and master thesis categories. The award is endowed with € 1,000 in prize money for each category. The selection of the theses to be recognized is based on a mutually anonymous review process in which at least three experts from science and teaching assess the work on the basis of a uniform evaluation sheet.
Each award of the Golden Owl is part of a key topic. The previous topics were:
- The culture of debate on security policy in the Federal Republic of Germany (2011)
- Arab Spring - Transformation Processes and Political Upheavals in the Near and Middle East (2013)
- Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Actors, Structures and Processes (2015)
- Maritime Security in the 21st Century (2017)
- Germany's security policy in the MENA and Sahel region (2019)
WiSi online
In 2004, the BSH founded the online publication Science and Security - Online , which has established itself in science and specialist politics under the name WiSi-Online . The publication series is registered with an ISSN in the German National Library and enables young academics to get started with scientific publishing easily. Since the new edition in 2015, nine scientific articles have been published covering a wide range of topics in security policy:
- The coming of age of German security policy: German strategic culture between continuity and change (2015)
- AIIB, Silk Road and a multinational win-win game? A First Look at China's New Infrastructure Foreign Policy (2015)
- Humanitarian Intervention: What is it good for? (2016)
- Risk in EU Counter-Terrorism: A Critique of Risk Assessment-Based Policymaking (2017)
- Digital natives and online identity construction: How does the internet facilitate radicalization? (2017)
- Deviating from the Historic Path: The Reasoning behind South Africa's Attempt to Withdraw from the International Criminal Court (2018)
- The Crimean Intervention: Divisionary Use of Force in Russia's Foreign Policy? (2019)
- The Impact and Diversity of Mediation Leverage: An Interim Summary (2019)
- Time to break the silence? Israeli Options Towards a Nuclear Iran (2019)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Science and Security / Federal Association for Security Policy at Universities | Land of Ideas | Germany. 2008, archived from the original on April 1, 2020 ; accessed on April 1, 2020 .
- ^ Articles of Association. Retrieved April 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Mission statement. Retrieved April 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from January 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Federal Board. Retrieved January 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Science and Security. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ University groups. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ University Group of the Year. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Basic Academy. Retrieved April 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Advanced Academy. Retrieved April 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Seminar "Economy & Security". Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Paradigm shift in the arms industry. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Cyber attacks and critical infrastructures. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ PESCO - the philosopher's stone of the European Union !? Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Armed Forces Seminar . Retrieved April 14, 2017 .
- ↑ BSH goes Joint Cooperation. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Simulation "UN Mission HQ". Retrieved April 14, 2017 .
- ↑ BSH goes Baltikum: Report of the first international security policy excursion. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Golden Owl. Retrieved April 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Two works on Mali were awarded the Golden Owl. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Science & Security Online. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Time to break the silence? Israeli options towards a nuclear Iran. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .