Protecting Refugees in Times of Global Disorder

February 6, 2025 | New York City

In many parts of the world, millions of people are forced to flee because of armed conflicts, persecution, environmental degradation, and other humanitarian crises. At the same time, nationalistic and xenophobic reactions in many countries and by many governments prevent the effective delivery of humanitarian help for refugee populations.  

Against this backdrop, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung United Nations and Global Dialogue, New York Office hosted a discussion with Niels Annen, Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Mr. Annen is Germany’s candidate to become the next UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the event provided an opportunity for a select group of civil society representatives and humanitarian experts for an off-the-record exchange with Mr. Annen about upcoming challenges for the multilateral system and the UN Refugee Agency.

Niels Annen has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary in the BMZ in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021. From 2018 to 2021, he was Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office. First joining the German Bundestag in 2005, he has been shaping Germany’s foreign policy on Afghanistan and the Middle East, as well as on topics such as arms control, nuclear non-proliferation, and the United Nations. From 2014 to 2018, he served as the Foreign Policy Spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Mr. Annen was a Senior Transatlantic Resident at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, D.C. between 2010 and 2011. He holds a Master's Degree in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University.