Debatte

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    • Author: Kai Koddenbrock

    • Dishonest honesty law in North Rhine-Westphalia

      North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament, 18th legislative period: Draft bill of the state government. Law on the Strengthening of the University Landscape (University Strengthening Act), Publication 18/16798, November 25, 2025, https://www.landtag.nrw.de/home/dokumente/dokumentensuche/gesetzgebungsportal/aktuelle-gesetzgebungsverfahr/hochschulstarkungsgesetz.html.

      The draft bill, which was initiated by the CDU-led Ministry of Science and referred to the Science Committee after its first reading on December 18, 2025, remains a threat to academic freedom and freedom of expression at universities in North Rhine-Westphalia, even after revision. On the surface it seems harmless: it aims to reduce shortage of skilled workers “through an attractiveness campaign for the higher education sector,” to reform lifelong learning at universities, to foster digitalization, to introduce quarter parity in senates as a standard model, – and to create “instruments to protect university members from assaults and hostility, discrimination, and the abuse of positions of power within the framework of university self-administration.”

      Indeed, there is a pressing need to curb the abuse of power at universities. But this legitimate demand is being exploited to make it easier for the government to expel unwelcome students and sanction university faculty, staff, and leadership under the guise of protecting diversity at universities.

      The addition of a “security right” and “integrity right” or “honesty right” (Redlichkeitsrecht) to disciplinary law in academia opens the door to exploitation for political purposes. Political exploitation is very likely if the new regulations and contact persons are designed and operate in such a way that academic freedom and freedom of expression are not prioritized. Science Minister Ina Brandes (CDU) openly stated in the state parliament’s science committee on January 21 that she was “extremely frustrated” that her hands had been tied in dealing with uncooperative university administrations such as that of the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Her hands might not be tied anymore with the amendment. It is imperative to recognize that the regulation excess of the new law, in those passages that do not concern abuse of power, is an attempt to interfere with university autonomy and academic freedom. Protection against abuse of power must be clearly separated from interference with fundamental freedoms.

      ↗ https://www.landtag.nrw.de/home/dokumente/dokumentensuche/gesetzgebungsportal/aktuelle-gesetzgebungsverfahr/hochschulstarkungsgesetz.html

    • The imperial Federal Republic of Germany

      Kai Koddenbrock and Carolin Fiete Norina Voß, “Walking a fine line: Germany and the question of imperialism”, New Political Economy, November 2025, pp. 1–20, https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2025.2581605.

      Imperialism is all around us again. Russia in Ukraine and the United States in Venezuela have shown everyone that we need to rethink global politics as a violent and expansionist affair. Western support for the genocide in Gaza has shaken the ability to look away. Liberal heads of state like Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney now even acknowledge that the elites and ruling classes in the West have actively peddled the lie that we have ever lived in a liberal world order.

      In light of this new-found honesty and confronted with the steadfast loyalty to the genocidal and fascist Israeli government, how can we theoretically and empirically understand a militarizing Germany without falling into the trap of viewing violence, war, and the exploitation of the South as something that is merely committed elsewhere?

      This is the guiding question Carolin Fiete Norina Voß and I have been working on for more than two years. The article is open access and invites readers to take a historical and self-critical look at our era of violence and the shifting relations of capitalist accumulation.

      We argue that theories of imperialism can help us to make sense of Germany. These theories were actively forgotten in large parts of the academic world of the Global North, while scholars in the Global South never stopped theorizing and experiencing the actually existing imperialism. We suggest a conceptual focus on war and military violence, domestic state-capital relations, and the extraction of value from the Global South. Empirically, we investigate recent shifts in German security and economic policy, Germany’s corporate giants Volkswagen and BASF, as well as the quest for critical minerals from the Global South.

      Our paper concludes that imperialism as an analytical term allows to tackle the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the present in a more holistic way and is generative and productive in dealing with a world engulfed in war and crisis.

      ↗ https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2025.2581605