What do a football club, a woman, a list, and a pipeline have in common? Well, let us be more specific. What do Bayern Munich, the new German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock, the list of the World Press Freedom of the Reporter without Borders, and the gas pipe North Stream 2 have in common? To be honest, at first glance it is difficult to answer this question and it seems to be inconceivable, that there are any connections between them. But there are.

However, in a world that has become VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity)[1] simple answers or simplicity is not the key function to understand the world rather it is complexity or complex answers. Also understanding the complexity of foreign policy and as an example of this, the blend of German, European, and international foreign affairs, includes the understanding of not obvious connections between issues and to see context in a different and more systemic way. But that’s not enough. According to Derek Cabrera you must be also aware of distinctions and different perspectives (DSRP)[2].

So, if you are interested in foreign policy and at the same time you want to broaden your perspective about the context described above, you should begin to ask more questions[3] and explore the background and surroundings. Once Donella H. Meadows[4] said: “Remember, always, that everything you know and everything everyone knows, is only a model. Get your model out there where it can be viewed. Invite others to challenge your assumptions and add their own.”  But this article goes one step further. It will offer few conclusions rather it will present individual interrelated building blocks and leave the composition to the reader. To make also profitable use of the time factor (reading, thinking about, challenging, investigating), this article is divided into four parts. Each part certainly forms a unit, but only their interaction will be able to reveal a whole picture.

So, here is the first part of a model which can help towards seeing foreign policy differently and adding some worth knowing under the requirements made above. It is also a challenge to stop seeing the world in a linear way or one-dimensional functional kind. And precisely because of that we start with making some reflections about Bayern Munich and their annual general meeting on November 25^th this year.

Bayern Munich, a Dramatic Meeting & Signs of Change?

As maybe everyone knows Bayern Munich is the most successful German football club, one of the biggest clubs in Europe and has won the Champions League in 2020. Accordingly, one should think that the annual general meeting was a day-care centre full of joy and harmony in times of Covid-19. Not even close. One circumstance ensured that the meeting took on downright chaotic features and almost ended in a scandal. What was the trigger for that?

Soon the contracts with Qatar Airways (a financially strong main sponsor) will expire. Qatar Airways was founded in 1993 on the initiative of the Al-Thani royal family and has come under international criticism for poor working conditions. The International Labour Organization has therefore upheld a complaint by the International Transport Union against Qatar Airways. Qatar as a country will be the host of the next football world championship and must put up with extensive allegations, which include the inhumane working conditions and the large number of resulting deaths on the construction sites of the stadiums for the World Cup. Qatar is also being accused of being one of the Taliban’s main supporters in Afghanistan.

Sports events have always been a popular platform to present yourself as a country or company. It offers the possibility to use the power of the pictures (and the media), to convince the global community of the shine and the perfection of your own system. This principle is of course not used exclusively by so-called dubious dictatorships and repressive systems. So-called democracy and systems of popular rule also like to use this fact for their own purposes (e.g., Olympic Games).

Bayern Munich is (still) one of the most successful football clubs in Europe, but the CEO Oliver Kahn (former goalkeeper of the club) is right to complain about the financial difficulties within European football. Kahn referred to the financial pressure of FC Bayern Munich in competition with the English clubs. The distance to the Premiere League has long been "blatant". Some weeks before the annual general meeting he gave a press conference and made the following statement: “FC Bayern stands for success, because that is the basis of everything, on and off the pitch. We stand for inspiration because you cannot be successful without joy. And we are always aware of our social responsibility, which is why commitment is a third central value of our club philosophy." An abstract from the public values of Bayern Munich certainly includes the topic Mia San Mia (Bavarian German for We Are We) “familiar and human interactions”, the social fair play “social commitment”, and FCB as a social melting pot for “integration”, “socially gripping topic of conversation”, and “football as a community experience for all social groups layer”.

Even if it leads too far here and distracts from the actual topic and only as an inspiration to think about: May be Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling is right when he said: “When a game around the globe mobilized millions of people, then it is no longer a game!”

Already in the run-up there were already violent discussions in the setting for the meeting in question. Increased requests from members wanted to ensure that the meeting point of a non-renewal of the contracts with Qatar Airways comes on the agenda. Ultimately, with the help of a court decision, the management of the association was able to achieve that this topic was supposedly excluded. Various members were not deterred by this fact and speeches during the meeting were used to address this topic. Similarly, a storming of the stage by club members, on which the club management sat, should underline the urgency of their concerns. Uli Hoeness (honorary president) commented on the events as follows (this quote was being directed more as a reproach to the uprising people): “Worst event I have ever experienced at Bayer Munich”. Totally surprised, neither willing to face the situation nor to react to it, the leadership continued to say no word on this subject and referred exclusively to the decisions of the court. Truly good crisis management certainly looks different. During the events several members of the association resigned from the club. Their justification: disregarding the values of the club through cooperation with Qatar.

What does this story tell us? The executives of Bayern Munich did not recognize the zeitgeist or underestimated the power and scope of a social change process running within German society. They are still increasingly looking only at the good old capitalist traditions. They are trying as usual to keep the product Bayern Munich alive, to make it competitive and to make the Bayern Munich public limited company a financial success.

By the way, Bayern Munich itself holds 75% of the shares and the remaining 25% is divided equally between the companies Adidas, Audi, and Allianz Insurance.

By the way, Audi belongs to Volkswagen and the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund QIA owns 17 percent of VW ordinary shares with voting rights. This makes the Sovereign Wealth Fund the third largest single shareholder in ordinary shares, right after Porsche Automobil Holding SE and the German federal state Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen).

So, what do the Germans think about the context of human rights and economy? Well, according to various surveys like from the INSA-Consulere in Erfurt and Infratest Dimap, up to 70% of the Germans prefer a higher status of human rights and are willing to exchange them for economic advantages. This is expressed in the political day-to-day business in the support for a so-called supply-chain-law, which makes companies legally vulnerable even at the end of the value chain if, inhuman work conditions arise within the production process.

Are there any evidence or reasons for why this opinion is breaking ground so dramatically right now? Well, Covid-19 has often been referred to as a kind of game changer or game booster. Long before Covid-19 many scientists like Paul Mason or business magnates like Warren Buffett have discussed the issue of the end of capitalism, and now after all these years of unrestrained and reckless consumption, a pandemic shows the vulnerability of global networked capitalism and your own lifestyle. Supply chains are collapsing, products can no longer be produced, shelves are remaining empty, requests cannot be satisfied. This is certainly not a deficiency, but it irritates a spoiled society, which not only stimulates the emotions. A lack of consumption frees up individual capacities, which stimulate thinking about the meaning and purpose of life. Increasingly, including the issue of climate change, the question arises whether one's own lifestyle and that of the society is and was correct. The rediscovery of family and friends due to lookdowns and other restrictive measures, in other words the human and social inside of a person and their importance for life itself, draws wider circles.

Many people think that foreign policy is an exclusive domain of a government or a state without any influence from other parties. Well. Here are two reminders.

What is foreign policy? Here is a simple answer from Google: “A country's foreign policy (also called the international relations policy) is a set of goals about how the country will work with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily. It includes such matters as international trade, foreign aid, military alliances, and war”.

What is democracy? Here is a simple answer from Google: “Today democracy refers to forms of rule, political orders or political systems in which power and government emanate from the people.” To be clear, this is a Western definition of democracy. Probably a far Eastern definition would look different.

Something seems to be changing with the sovereign of the German government, the people. Where this journey will go is still hidden in a crystal ball that rests in a cupboard. But you must have the following four notions in mind.

First, there is a so called 3,5%-rule. Erica Chenoweth, an American political scientist at ´the Harvard Kennedy School, discovered the "3.5 percent law" - it says that by no means most of the population must revolt to force political change. But protest movements that want to force a change of policy also fall under this law.

Second, we are living in an age of emotions (in the Western world), because the unemotional and rationally based liberal ideology no longer has the creative power it once had. It once formed the fundamental basis for all social processes in the past and is now in competition with more emotional ideologies and concepts (e.g., populism). The need for more feelings and emotions has also reached politics.

Third, the power of the mass media and social media. Ideas can be spread within seconds around the global, true, or not. The daily consumption of one-sided media acts like a chamber of echoes, reinforcing and exaggerating certain topics, opinions, and comments. The question therefore also arises ​​who controls or who finances this media?

Fourth, it is a truism that it is easier to move people when they are against something than for it.

Maybe the executives of Bayern Munich were right when they were complaining that asking the members of the club (shareholders) a majority would not support the actions and demands by the agitators and keeping up the plans and goals for the future is the right way.

But when you think about the four notions and you agree with them, what is your conclusion?

What does it mean for the German football?

What does it mean for Qatar and their ambitions?

What does it mean for German foreign policy? Can it maybe have seen as an example for the Western world?

What does it mean for the European Union, when you consider that Germany is seen as an engine of the community, together with France?

As we have seen, inconspicuous events can have an interesting background. When changes take place on a large stage, they can possibly be found before in small and unimportant-looking events. But too often they are not seen and ignored. Surely, they shouldn't be increased either, but they should get our attention and be worth examining more closely.

The second part will be headed with the name of the new German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and it will deal with a possibly different German foreign policy. And maybe, there is a connection with the statements made above.