As part of this year’s Helmut Schmidt Lecture, entitled “Navigating Power and Principles!”, political scientist and ECFR Policy Fellow Alexander Lipke has become the new BKHS Fellow on the team at the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation (BKHS).
During his ten-month fellowship, Lipke will examine the conditions under which overlapping values and interests can serve as a common basis for action among middle powers in the current geopolitical disorder – and why, in some cases, they remain merely a rhetorical backdrop.
Using South Korea as a case study, he is examining how the country balances the tension between values, interests and the constraints of the great power politics of the United States and China, and what role historical and geographical factors play in its self-image in foreign policy. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences between European and South Korean foreign policy and, on that basis, to derive realistic proposals for action towards more closely coordinated economic and security policies, both bilaterally and in coordination with other partners.
Alexander Lipke is a Policy Fellow in the Asia Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), where he works on EU–Korea relations, particularly in the field of economic security, and is currently leading a research project on cooperation in the battery sector. He studied European Studies at Maastricht University, as well as International Politics and East Asia/International Political Economy at the University of Warwick and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
With a focus on ‘cooperation between middle powers’, he is a Fellow at the BKHS within our ‘Economy and Justice’ programme line.
“Navigating Power and Principles!” Helmut Schmidt Lecture 2026