Study Trips

Each winter semester we go on a field trip with our students to learn about foreign and security policy decision making in Berlin. So far, we have been able to meet with high-level politicians at the Federal Chancellery, the Presidency, the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence, and the Bundestag, but also to think-tanks such as the Körber Foundation or the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) or media such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Our goal is less to discuss current international crises than to learn how decisions in Berlin are taken. The field trip is preceded by a seminar in Jena, which introduces students to major research findings and prepare them for the in-depth discussions we usually have in Berlin (under Chatham-house rules).

Coordinator of the Study Trips is Steve Biedermann.