Episode 78: Transatlantic Trade Cooperation for the Future—A Conversation with Dan Mullaney
Dan Mullaney, Former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East, is our guest for this episode of The Zeitgeist. Together with AGI President Jeff Rathke and Peter …

Cluster Headache
What one headline from Munich reveals about Germany a year into the war in Ukraine The 2023 Munich Security Conference produced several significant storylines. In general, Western leaders demonstrated unity …

The Not-so-Sudden Death of Weimar Democracy
January 30, 1933, the day that Reich President Paul von Hindenburg appointed the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany—and a day whose 90th anniversary we marked last month—was …
Episode 77: Zeitenwende Anniversary
On February 27, 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made an historic speech to the German Bundestag, declaring a historic turning point (Zeitenwende) for Germany’s security and defense policy following Russia’s …

The Evolution of German Citizenship Law
Over the past three decades, German citizenship law has evolved from a largely jus sanguinis (“right of blood”) system with a high bar for naturalization to something closer to jus …
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Advocating for the Local Level
Local Government Associations in Germany and the United States In recent years, politics in Germany and the United States were affected by enormous global challenges and crises, such as the …

Berlin Votes… Again
Observers of German politics often lament the exaggerated attention devoted to state (Land) elections—especially those that do not coincide with a national election. Such regional polls are interpreted as a …
Episode 76: Energy, Trade, and Security—Germany’s Expanded Zeitenwende with FDP Caucus Leader Christian Dürr
On this episode of the Zeitgeist, our guest is FDP Bundestag Caucus Leader Christian Dürr. He and AGI President Jeff Rathke discuss how Germany has reset its energy policy, the …

AGI Profiles: Boris Pistorius
Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius currently serves as the German Federal Minister of Defense. Appointed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz on January 17, 2023, Pistorius succeeded Christine Lambrecht following her …

Orbán’s Enablers
German Conservatives and the EU Council’s Unanimity On December 12, 2022, as the first news of Eva Kaili’s arrest and “Qatargate,” the European Parliament’s first major corruption scandal, broke, Hungarian …
Episode 75: What Germany’s Solution to its Tank Dilemma Tells Us about the Zeitenwende?
On this episode of the Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke talks with Dr. Liana Fix, Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, to discuss ongoing challenges in Germany’s …

Partisan Divides and Popular Fronts
We are pleased to inaugurate the AGI 40th Anniversary series with the following article, which coincides with the 90th anniversary of the Nazi seizure of power (Machtergreifung) when Hitler was appointed chancellor …