Foreword

During my tenure as a professor of political science and contemporary history, students occasionally asked me to take a stance on current political issues, which I always tried to do in discussions when possible. However, in my regular lectures, I limited myself to analyzing political positions, as I do not consider it permissible to misuse the teaching podium for political sermons and confessions.

Like many of my students, I view it as a detrimental development in political science to increasingly focus only on rather abstract political structures, decision-making processes, voter behavior, and the like, while neglecting policies, political content, and subjects that are hotly contested in the public sphere.

In general political and educational events, I have never shied away from expressing my views as a political scientist who has concentrated on peace and conflict research, particularly on pressing political topics that I had studied more thoroughly, even though I could not conduct my own research on these issues for years.

The great privilege of lifelong engagement with political-historical topics has likely fostered a certain ability for critical engagement with current news, for gathering background information, and for developing judgment, which is rightly demanded by politically interested students as well as seniors with an interest in further education.