AGI

Society, Culture & Politics

The AGI Society, Culture & Politics Program focuses on crucial topics within the German-American dialogue, including: demographic change, migration/integration, and aging societies; electoral politics at the national, state, and European levels, and comparative analysis of Germany and the United States; diversity within Germany, Europe, and the United States; the politics of collective memory and identity, Holocaust remembrance and reconciliation, and shifting conceptions of national identity that shape perspectives and policy responses.
Reset

Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman Speaks at German-Israeli Diplomatic Relations Event in Miami Beach

On July 1, 2015,  Action Reconciliation Service For Peace together with the American Jewish Committee, the Consulate General of Israel, and the German Consulate General, hosted a conference marking 50 …

Germany Has Lessons for the South

The recent public debate in the United States over displaying the Confederate flag in the South, particularly in government buildings and at public memorials, is an echo of the racism …

Other nations could learn from Germany’s efforts to reconcile after WWII

In early March, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Japan, her first trip to the country in seven years. She met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to discuss climate change, terrorism, …

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Higher Education in the United States and Germany

In 2014, Lower Saxony became the last German state to completely waive tuition fees for all students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This move comes at a time when …

2015 Harry & Helen Gray Reconciliation Fellows Selected

AGI is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Harry & Helen Gray Reconciliation Fellowship, which will bring the fellows to the Institute for a stay of 6 weeks …

Recent Authors

Lily Gardner Feldman

The German-Israeli Relationship: A Chronicle of Four Decades, 1983-2023

Gray M. Barrett

Merkel on Marriage

Anand Giridharadas

Germany Has Lessons for the South

AGI provides knowledge, insights, and networks as tools to solve the challenges ahead.

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Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman Speaks on the Occasion of 50 Years of German-Israeli Diplomatic Relations

On May 12, 2015, Germany and Israel celebrated fifty years of diplomatic relations, an anniversary that has generated extensive reflection on this remarkable friendship seventy years after the end of …

Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman Chairs Panel on “2015 and Its Horrors”

On May 13, 2015, Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman, Harry & Helen Gray Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture & Politics Program at AGI, chaired a panel on the Armenian genocide …

A Harsh Reality

With recent headlines decrying poor treatment of refugees—from the Rohingya in South Asia to African migrants in the Mediterranean—the issue of human rights and the aid that these destitute people …

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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 …

Transatlantic Perspectives

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 …

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Transatlantic Perspectives

Action Reconciliation / Service for Peace with Katharina von Münster

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Developing Advanced Work-Based Higher Education: What Germany and the U.S. Can Learn from Each Other

Currently, many countries are experiencing a strong renewed interest in work-based training.[1] When it comes to discussions in this field, American policymakers usually identify dual apprenticeship training as the “crown …

Transatlantic Perspectives