Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Elections: the general trend, but with a worrying twist
Any election in Germany has its own appeal (not only for electoral analysts) and the election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was an important chance for many people living there to judge their government and their political elite. However, it is hard to find good arguments for the importance or the consequences of the 2011 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern election for Germany as a whole, or to find a conceivable influence of the results of this election on the important decisions that have to be made in Germany in the next few weeks regarding the financial and European crisis.
Euro Stabilization: problems, eurobonds, political union perspectives
The EU Summit of 21 July 2011 has brought considerable adjustment impulses for the stabilization of the euro-zone. At first sight, the main problem is sovereign debt financing of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal—the three countries that benefit from euro-zone rescue packages—but, in fact, the bigger issue is a series of broader challenges for EU integration and institutional reforms in the euro-area.
Elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
The results from last Saturday’s parliamentary elections in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern won’t have any major consequences for Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, or Europe for that matter, argues AICGS contributor Dr. Dieter Roth. Voter support for Germany’s far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), on the other hand, should not be overlooked.
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Support Our WorkA Break in Bickering? Time off from Tantrums
In this week’s At Issue, Executive Director Dr. Jackson Janes discusses the frustrations of voters and their leaders as they both head into a time to perhaps help temper tensions during the coming weeks.
Controversy over German Military Sales to Saudi Arabia
In a highly controversial move, the German parliament has agreed to sell 200 Leopard II tanks to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. While Germany has claimed to have consulted the …
Kommunale Integrationspolitik
Former DAAD/AICGS Fellow Dr. Scott Stock Gissendanner writes that a paradigm shift has occurred in the national framework for local integration policies, resulting in a higher level of policy standardization at the local level. In an essay that was supported by research completed during his stay at AICGS, Dr. Stock Gissendanner argues that as communities try to integrate immigrant populations, the goal is for full integration with permanent residence, a goal which comes from centralized planning at the federal level. This essay originally appeared in the February 14, 2011, edition of Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte and is available in German only.
Europeans Expecting German Leadership
As the euro saga unfolds, one thing is becoming clearer: The structure surrounding the euro has its weaknesses, but the crisis is not really about the currency at all. The current crisis is as much a crisis of EU governance and political mentality as it is of the economic policies of Greece or the ECB, argues AICGS Trustee and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany John Kornblum. A version of this essay originally appeared in the June 20, 2011, edition of Handelsblatt.
The Nuclear Power Endgame in Germany
As the era of nuclear energy approaches its end in Germany, the country can show how fast the shift to renewable energy can be achieved, writes R. Andreas Kraemer, Director & CEO of the Ecologic Institute in Berlin and co-author of AICGS Policy Report 31. In an essay that examines the history of the German anti-nuclear power movement and discusses the future of German alternative energy, Kraemer argues that Germany can realistically achieve 100 percent reliance on renewable energy and be the model going forward for other nations in a relatively short time frame. A version of this article originally appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle.
Narrating the Future; Navigating From the Past
In this week’s At Issue, Executive Director Dr. Jackson Janes discusses the key challenges facing Europe and asks why today’s leaders should not be able respond to them as well as their predecessors.
The German Nuclear Energy Phase Out: Neither Revolution Nor Going it Alone
The nuclear energy phase out in Germany is no revolution, writes Marcel Viëtor, Program Officer for Energy and Climate at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and a Visiting Fellow at AICGS in June 2011. From the outside, it may appear as though the German government had come to some sort of radical decision following the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, Viëtor argues, but instead the withdrawal from nuclear energy in Germany is a process that has been in development for quite some time. A version of this essay originally appeared in Moskovskie Novosti.
