From 10th to 12th of March, young academics and professionals from all around Europe gathered in Bonn, Germany, for “Bonn Vision Lab: Envisioning Zeitenwende”. The workshop was organised by the Regional Group Rhineland of Polis180 and the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS)with some GDL Members taking on active role in the conference too.

The topic of the Lab was the illegal Russian war against Ukraine and the proclaimed “Zeitenwende”, which have once again demonstrated the urgent need for strategic positioning in German foreign and security policy. Substantive and broad discussion on concrete goals, visions and priorities of German foreign and security policy is unfortunately largely missing in the current debate. In addition, since European Security is highly dependent on a determined as well as coordinated German foreign and security policy, there is an even greater need for finally expanding the discourse on foreign and security policies. Tomorrow’s decision-makers are oftentimes neglected in policy making, yet they bring a unique perspective to any debate and as the ones affected most by the impact of today’s decisions in the future should get a seat at the table. That is why Bonn Vision Lab aimed specifically at young academics and professionals, to provide a space for their voices to be heard.

GDL member Jasdeep Randhawa was invited as an external expert to give her input on “Climate Change and Security: A Global Threat?”. Fellow member Gaurav Sharma also attended the event.

In contrast to foresight workshops, the participants of the Bonn Vision Lab discussed concrete strategic goals and priorities of German foreign policy in a newly and individually developed format. The launch event of the two-day workshop was a public panel discussion with high-ranking politicians and experts from German foreign and security policy.