Abstract

Recently, policies and practices of intervention by Western countries – either as members in EU, NATO or UN missions – have generated substantive academic and public debates at the national and international level. At the European level, the forms of engagement as well as its extent has led to continuous debates among member states with regard to questions of the EU’s normative model as a civilian power, solidarity, national priorities and interests as well as the character and extent of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Currently, reorientation and readjustments of foreign and security policy agendas and strategies are controversially discussed within and among the US, the EU as well as its member states – namely Portugal and Germany – by policy-makers, opinion-makers and the public at large. This workshop focuses on similarities and differences between Portuguese and German approaches, as well as on these adjustments, fundamental for an understanding of changing patterns of policy shaping and making, relevant both at EU and national levels.
Participation and interventions by José Manuel Pureza (CES/University of Coimbra), Walter Kolbow (German Social Democratic Party), Citha Maaß (German Institute for International and Security Affairs), Michael Daxner (Oldenburg University), Nuno Lemos Pires (Portuguese Military Army).

Bios

José Manuel Pureza is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies. He is also Professor at the School of Economics of the University of Coimbra, where he teaches in the Ba, Master and PhD programs on International Relations. He is also co-director of the PhD Program on International Politics and Conflict Resolution. In the more recent years he has leaded several research projects on peace studies and has published in that area and on international legal debates.

Walter Kolbow is member of the German Social Democratic Partywas member of the German Bundestag in the period from 1980 to 2009. From 1999 to 2000 Mr. Kolbow was authorized representative of the Federal Government for coordination of the humanitarian aid during the Kosovo war in Macedonia. From 1998 to 2005 he was Parliamentary State Secretary at the office of the Minister of Defense. From 2005 to 2009 Walter Kolbow was Vice-President of the parliamentary group of SPD and responsible for fields like foreign policy, security and defense policy, development policy and human rights.

Citha Maaß has worked, since 1990, as a Senior Associate, Asia Division, at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and from 1996 onwards she has specialized on Afghan affairs. She studied political science, economics and European history at Munich University (M.A. and PhD) and did research and field work in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than ten years.

Michael Daxner is professor of sociology and president emeritus of the University of Oldenburg, visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin, and senior research fellow at Berghof Conflict Research in Germany. He is the former president of the Magna Charta Observatory of Fundamental University Values and Rights. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the principal international officer for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for the Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo, and in 2002 became special counselor to the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) office in Belgrade. From 2003 to 2004, he was engaged in Afghan higher education reform as commissioned by the German Rectors and German Academic Exchange on behalf of the German Foreign Office and served as an expert on Southeast European education as a counselor with the Austrian Ministry of Science and Education. Dr. Daxner holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of Vienna.

Nuno Lemos Pires is a Lt. Colonel Portuguese Army, currently assigned as Professor of Military History and International Relations at the Military Academy in Lisbon and a PhD candidate on History, Defence and International Relations at the ISCTE/ Lisbon´s University Institute with the Military Academy.  He has commanded at the Platoon, Company, and Battalion levels.  He has also served as a Military History Professor at the Portuguese War College, as an Intelligence Officer in the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps – Spain, and as the Military Assistant to the Commander of NATO  Joint Command Lisbon.   During his military assignments he has participated in numerous overseas missions to include deployments to Mozambique, Angola, Pakistan, Ethiopia and most recently as Chief of Staff for the Portuguese Operational Mentor & Liaison Team in Kabul, Afghanistan (ISAF).  He has published two books, cooperated in dozens of books and projects, published many articles in academic magazines, the majority related to Military History and Strategy, written in Portuguese, Spanish and English. 

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