A German Blueprint for Europe
German leadership has been crucial to the efforts to hold the EU together—while also trying to articulate Berlin’s vision without alienating its neighbors. The domestic debate over German foreign policy …
Donald Trump – Aggravator or Catalyzer of the European Crises?
This text was originally presented at a public lecture at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, on February 15, 2017. Introduction One might reasonably ask what is actually special about …
Principle, Policy, and Purpose: The Balance of Values and Interests
The American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once stated that the essence of statecraft is locating the point of concurrence between the parochial and the general interest, between the national and international common good.[1] Niebuhr emphasizes that realism implies an obligation to see the world as it actually is, not as we might like it to be. He warned that hubris can blind realism, finding expression in outsized confidence in both the power as well as the values of a country as being universal. Any country is susceptible to such temptations.
Germany Cannot Replace the U.S., But Europe Can Live with Trump
There is ample evidence that there has been a major shift toward a greater international role for Germany and that the public is gradually accepting such a bigger role. Germany …
The Transatlantic Alliance: Between Reassurance and Renewal
There is a well-known warning to all politicians seeking to sound convincing to their audiences: if you have to explain too much, you are losing them. If there are too many ambiguities in a message, you trip yourself up justifying them. The platform of the Munich Security Conference is a tough testing ground for all politicians given the enormous concentration on what is discussed there. This year’s meeting was no exception.
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Support Our WorkUncertainty Surrounds the Putin-Trump Relationship
Few issues stir more concerns—and confusion—about where the Trump administration is heading than relations with Russia. Several Cabinet secretaries, during their confirmation hearings and subsequent statements, voiced strong support for …
From the AGI Bookshelf: A World in Disarray
Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, has to have a broad horizon when looking at the world, as he shows in his latest book, A World in …
In a World of Cyber Threats, Isolationism Will Never Win
President Trump has said cybersecurity is a priority for his administration. It is also one of the fastest growing spending priorities for the U.S. government this fiscal year. Across the …
At War with Radical Islam: A Recipe for the Wrong Kind of Leadership in the Twenty-First Century
In the summer of 2014, Stephen Bannon gave a talk at the Institute for Human Dignity in Rome via Skype saying that “we are in an outright war against jihadist …
History Does Not Repeat Itself. People Do.
It is said that Mark Twain once commented, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Maybe a more accurate version is that history doesn’t repeat itself, but people often …
Enter Trump
I’ll admit it. I did not expect to be writing a piece with this title. Like so many on both sides of the Atlantic, I did not expect Donald Trump …
A Reset with China? Our Anxiety and Germany’s Responsibility
When the news about Donald Trump’s election victory broke, I was in Shanghai for a conference on Sino-German relations. The conference agenda was at once scrapped to make way for …
