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Industry and Government Leaders Call for New Election Standards to Protect Democracy

Meeting for a third German-American Cybersecurity Roundtable in Brussels on November 16, industry leaders joined government officials in calling for a more coordinated effort to secure election infrastructure and to …

The Dilemmas of Promoting Gender Equality in Times of Polarization

The political landscapes in both countries are characterized by increasing polarization. In the U.S., a man became president who makes a spectacle of himself through derogative language and who tends …

The CDU Faces Pressure to Move Right—That Could Backfire

Today, Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is meeting in Hamburg to choose a new leader—a decision with massive ramifications for national and European politics. This moment represents the first opportunity …

Will Merkel’s Retreat Spark German Foreign Policy Renewal?

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has ruled Germany since 2005 and for 49 of the past 69 years—its election of a new party leader December 7 will have far-reaching impact …

Negative Campaigning in the U.S. Midterm Elections

Role Model or Warning for German Campaign Strategies? Negativity has long been a part of American election campaigns, and the 2018 midterm campaign was no exception. In the lead-up to …

Europe Faces Open Doors but Uphill Battles with New Congress

“The U.S. is bigger than the White House,” declared German foreign minister Heiko Maas in a recent interview. In response to President Trump’s well-documented ambivalence toward alliances, German leaders are …

The Radicalization of the Extreme Right

The Rallies in Charlottesville in August 2017 and Chemnitz in August 2018 In August 2017, members of multiple far-right movements rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, with the goals of uniting the …

The 2018 Midterm Elections: The Transatlantic Alliance Outside the DC Beltway

As a DAAD/AGI Research Fellow from October to November 2018, Dr. Niklas Helwig analyzed U.S. domestic perception of the transatlantic alliance during the 2018 midterm elections. Lately, the U.S. administration has …

Transatlantic Relations after the Midterms

A Fresh Start or Further Decline? Since President Trump began implementing his vision of “America First” two years ago, European partners have been concerned whether a more unilateral and transactional …

Building a European Germany: Next Steps? 

In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall—and subsequent German unity—was a dream come true for Germans. Over the next few years the dream of a larger Europe, whole and …

On Capitol Hill, Transatlantic Trade Returns to Its Roots

Once, when I was trying to explain to a German acquaintance the personalities and geography of U.S. trade politics, I casually mentioned that despite skepticism toward trade among many Democrats, …

A Strained, Yet Indispensable Partnership: German-American Relations in the Age of Donald J. Trump  

For the past seventy years, the German-American and the European-American partnership has rested on a shared understanding of common goals: The transatlantic partners believed that the promotion of democracy, rule …