European Centre for Research on Federalism

Within the series A Global Dialogue on Federalism, organised by the Forum of Federations and the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies (IACFS), one-day roundtables on the topic of Foreign relations in federal states will take place in 2006 in twelve federal states (Argentinia, Australia, Austria, Germany, India, Switzerland, USA, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Malaysia, South Africa). Researchers and practitioners will discuss different perspectives of this complex of topics, dealing with the constitutional basis as well as with differing practices (Realverfassung) and the resulting foreign policy of the country. The main focus will be on the work of national and subnational state-levels, their cooperation as well as their rivalries, complementary as well as overlapping competencies and the collaboration with other states and supranational actors. The insights from participants of the national roundtables will be discussed and compared at a international roundtable at a later date. The insights from the individual countries will be presented in a volume, which serves as a reference for researchers as well as a handbook for practitioners. In addition, the insights will be outlined in a compact booklet.

Responsible for the roundtable, the book-chapter and the booklet-article for the Federal Republic of Germany will be Prof. Dr. Rudolf Hrbek for the European Centre for Research on Federalism. The roundtable for Germany will take place on May 12, 2006 in Tuebingen.