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Accepting the Challenge: How German Parties (Can) Innovate

Facing the challenge of a continuously changing societal environment, German political parties are in a state of flux. Recent party reforms such as the initiatives by the Social Democrats (2011) …

Training the U.S. Workforce for the Twenty-First Century: Can Germany Serve as a Role Model?

Not only has manufacturing come back to the U.S., it has also changed in the meantime, asking for new and different skill sets compared to previous times when the U.S. …

Bedingt Abwehrbereit? The German Debate about Cybersecurity and the Value of Intelligence

In today’s interconnected world, we can no longer keep our policy areas separate; what affects security policy also impacts an economy’s prosperity, and the decisions made can have ramifications on …

Delayed Industry Capture: A Lobbying Analysis of the EU Financial Transaction Tax

In January 2013, eleven euro zone states, including France, Germany, and Italy, decided to introduce a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) with the goal of making the financial sector contribute to …

Washington Viewpoints: Assessing Berlin’s Role in EU Energy Security

Europe is confronted with a new geopolitical landscape, with energy a major nexus.  The Russian annexation of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine has shattered assumptions about the postwar and …

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Germany Rethinks Its Security Policy

At the Munich Security Conference in 2014, German President Joachim Gauck challenged the Federal Republic to assume greater responsibility in security policy, emphasizing German leadership in conflict prevention, but also …

“The Great Divergence”: Elements for an Early Assessment

At the beginning of 2015, as many investors grew increasingly skeptical about the prospects of the euro area’s economy and its central bank’s capacity to fight what appeared to be …

The G20 and Its Contribution to Growth and Global Governance

The G20 at leaders’ level was created in November 2008, shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, at the height of the global financial crisis. Growth was therefore immediately at …

The Tattered German-American Relationship Needs the USA FREEDOM Act…More for What It Doesn’t Do than for What It Does

Congress is debating the USA FREEDOM Act in the next days. The House approved Representative Jim Sensenbrenner’s version of the law on Wednesday and the Senate is expected to vote …

Soft Power: Its Use in German and American Cultural Diplomacy

At an AGI workshop about Germany’s cultural policies in 1998, Harvard historian Charles Maier summarized his critical observations in one sentence: “Germany is a country that wants to run without …

Which Carrots and Which Sticks? Searching for a Strategy to Deal with Russia in the Ukraine Crisis

The Western community faces a dilemma in Ukraine. On the one hand, Putin is known to react to pressure with fierce counter pressure.[1] If you bully him into a tight …

An Aging Germany in a Young World: Adapting to Demographic Changes

In most of the developed world, birth rates have been falling.  Population decline results in economic and social strains and can even threaten national security.  Germany is a particularly severe …