News

BTI project director Hauke Hartmann took part in a roundtable discussion on „Social Inclusion“ at the invitation of the Americas Society in New York on November 27. He also presented the Transformation Index at the Strategic Communications Department of the United Nations and held meetings with the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Policy Institute and editors of Foreign Affairs and Americas Quarterly.

The "World Movement for Democracy", which took place October 14-17 in Lima, is the world’s largest conference on democratization. Hauke Hartmann represented the BTI on that occasion, introduced the index at the Peruvian Ministry for Social Inclusion and presented the results of the BTI 2012 on democratization and governance quality in Latin America at the Universidad del Pacífico.

What are the current transformation dynamics in Arab countries, and is Europe prepared for a differentiated stance towards their new partners in the South? The Bertelsmann Stiftung and the German Council on Foreign Relations addressed these questions on a workshop moderated by Hauke Hartmann on June 26 in Berlin. For the first time, the results of the BTI special study "The Arab Spring: One Year After" were presented to the public.

Invited by the Stiftung Genshagen and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 50 young politicians and scholars of the "Weimar Triangle" met on June 20 at Genshagen Castle for a conference on European foreign policy. With project director Hauke Hartmann they discussed the challenges the EU faces in their contact with authoritarian countries.

The BTI 2012 assesses a deteriorating quality of democracy throughout much of East Central and Southeast Europe. Massive infringements on participation rights and rule of law are prevalent in many countries, with particularly troublesome developments in Hungary. At the invitation of the Institute for World Economics and the Central European University the current BTI was presented in Budapest in May 2012.