We'd like to modernise our digital outreach in ways that suit your needs.
Please support us and do take part in this anonymous online survey regarding our users’ preferences.

Hintergrund
Global governance

Phasing out fossil fuels with climate finance

Fossil-fuel subsidies undermine climate protection and burden tight national budgets. Climate finance, if applied well, helps to reform subsidy systems in a socially just way.

Language politics in Cameroon

From colonial division to bloody conflict

Up to now, life in Cameroon is determined by whether one is Francophone or Anglophone. The so-called “Anglophone crisis” surrounding the independence aspirations of the part of the country that was once a British colony is claiming more and more victims.

Russia and China

BRICS-members are not coordinating their West-Africa strategies

Ghanaian scholar assesses Russia’s role in ECOWAS and speaks of new scramble for Africa

Queer people

Defending the progress made

Much has been achieved for queer people in Germany in recent decades. At the same time, they are still a target for physical and psychological abuse.

Nationhood

To define Pakistan as a nation, Islam is insufficient

Pakistan is a fragmented nation with a shaky political system, and the focus on Sunni Islam did not forge the desired unity.

Separatism

The Biafra legacy

Nigeria’s ethnic diversity has often been a bane rather than an opportunity to promote plural strength and development for the country. This was never more evident than during the devastating Biafra war.

Radicalisation

Extremist temptation

Radical groups are instrumentalising the Gaza war for their own purposes and recruiting young people via social media.

Health

Preparing for Ebola

In South Sudan, concerns about the Ebola virus are growing. Despite preventative measures there are still considerable deficits such as knowledge gaps among health personnel.

Race and identity

The difficulty of quantifying diversity in the US

Government attempts to quantify the diversity of United States residents have always fallen short. Outdated understandings of race are part of the problem.

Ethnic identity

Ethnicity is a fundamental part of African societies

In Africa, the question of who a person is includes which ethnic group they belong to. These affiliations have led to bloody conflicts on the continent and still shape politics and daily life in many places today.

Subscribe to Hintergrund

Sustainability

The UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to transform economies in an environmentally sound manner, leaving no one behind.