These are testing times for progressive diplomacy: Multilateralism is under stress, nationalism on the rise and unilateral actions frequently breach the Charta of the United Nations (UN) and international treaties. With the recently established “Alliance for Multilateralism” the initiators and signatories seek to save international responsibility, partnership and cooperation from national ignorance, regional hegemony and great power politics. The members of the informal alliance are united in their “conviction that a rules-based multilateral order is the only reliable guarantee for international stability and peace”.

Next year one of the founding members of the “Alliance for Multilateralism”, Germany, will be uniquely positioned to strengthen multilateral politics. By assuming the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2020 and by still being a non-permanent member in the UN Security Council Germany can make important contributions to shape the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) and to strengthen the UN peace and security architecture. Germany’s partners and international civil society will expect the government to deliver on its promises.

Germany’s foreign and security policy agenda 2020, the “Alliance for Multilateralism” and the role of the internationalist progressive movement are at the heart of the Tiergarten Conference 2019. Policy-makers from the social democratic and progressive party family are invited to share their ideas on how to defend multilateral action in the fields of European and international peace and security. We want to discuss how German social democracy jointly with its partners should make use of its prominent position in the EU and at the UN to advance the “Alliance for Multilateralism” – both within EU foreign and security policy structures and processes and within the UN system. Most importantly, the conference aims at sketching out a progressive approach to foreign and security policy to counter recurring geopolitical posturing of great and regional powers.

The Tiergarten Conference is the annual Foreign and Security Policy conference of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The first part of the conference is open to the public and the media and the second part will be held under Chatham House Rule with invited guests only. A simultaneous English-German / German-English translation of the entire conference will be provided.

Tweets from the public session are most welcome: #TGK19

The conference will be held in German and English. German-English translation will be available.