structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:translation
Socialist International

For sixteen years (1976–92), Brandt was the president of the Socialist International. During that period, the number of Socialist International's mainly European member parties grew until there were more than a hundred socialist, social democratic, and labour political parties around the world. For the first seven years, this growth in SI membership had been prompted by the efforts of the Socialist International's Secretary-General, the Swede Bernt Carlsson. However, in early 1983, a dispute arose about what Carlsson perceived as the SI president's authoritarian approach. Carlsson then rebuked Brandt saying: "this is a Socialist International – not a German International".

Next, against some vocal opposition, Brandt decided to move the next Socialist International Congress from Sydney, Australia to Portugal. Following this SI Congress in April 1983, Brandt retaliated against Carlsson by forcing him to step down from his position. However, the Austrian Chancellor, Bruno Kreisky, argued on behalf of Brandt: "It is a question of whether it is better to be pure or to have greater numbers". Carlsson was succeeded by the Finn Pentti Väänänen as Secretary General of the Socialist International.

During Brandt's presidency, the SI developed activities and dialogue on a number of International issues. This concerned the East–West conflict and arms race, on which the SI held high-level consultations with the leaderships of the United States and the Soviet Union, and on Afghanistan after 1979. The SI met with President Jimmy Carter and Vice Presidents Walter Mondale and George Bush, and with the CPSU Secretaries General Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev and Soviet Head of State Andrei Gromyko. The SI also developed active contacts to promote dialogue concerning regional conflicts. Those included the Middle East, where they helped to build contacts between Israel and the PLO, and also in Southern Africa and Central America.