Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik

The Federal Academy for Security Policy is the Federal Republic of Germany’s interministerial institution for advanced studies, education and training in security policy in the remit of the Federal Ministry of Defence. It has its seat in a complex of buildings on the premises of Schönhausen Palace in Berlin-Niederschönhausen, which was built in the 1950s for the former East German Government.Tasks and objectivesThe Federal Academy for Security Policy is responsible for providing comprehensive advanced training beyond ministerial bounds for current and future executive personnel both from federal and state institutions and from private sectors of relevance to security policy. It covers all areas of security policy and government and personal action. It is also responsible for establishing a network between the above groups of people. The Federal Academy for Security Policy sees itself as a forum for discussing security policy interests and in this function it supports Germany’s role within the international community and international organisations of all kinds, with the objective of establishing a consensus in security policy issues.The core event of the academy’s programme is its annual six-month Senior Course on Security Policy which is attended by about thirty people from federal and states ministries, the business sector and the scientific community. It is sometimes also attended by people from foreign ministries and supranational organisations.HistoryIn the mid-1980s, debate arose about the establishment of a national training institution for discussing and disseminating information on security policy issues similar to institutes that already existed in other countries (such as the National Defense University in Washington, the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale in Paris or the Royal College of Defence Studies in London).