The Comparison between the Recent “Comfort Women” Deal and German Payments to Slave and Forced Laborers
The Japanese-Korean deal concerning “comfort women,” formulated by Japanese prime minister Shinzō Abe and South Korean president Park Geun-hye on 28 December 2015, included a pledge from Japan to provide …
“Grief” and “Remorse” Mark Japanese Remarks on the Anniversary of the End of World War II
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s statement last Friday on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II expressed “feelings of profound grief” and his condolences for those who …
Mitsubishi Apologizes to Wartime American and Chinese Forced Laborers
Corporate and business interests impact countries’ willingness to engage in reconciliation with their former enemies, as Dr. Martina Timmermann discusses in her 2014 Policy Report. Recently, Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials Corp. …
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, …
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 …
Recent Authors
AGI provides knowledge, insights, and networks as tools to solve the challenges ahead.
Support Our WorkGermany’s Foreign Policy of Reconciliation
Now available in paperback, AGI Society, Culture & Politics Director Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman’s book, “Germany’s Foreign Policy of Reconciliation: From Enmity to Amity,” highlights Germany as a model for …
Reconciliation Means Having to Say You’re Sorry
Responding to China and South Korea’s budding interest in Germany as a contact point for resolving disputes with Japan, Director of the AGI Society, Culture & Politics Program Dr. Lily …
You Are the Model: What Asia Can Learn from Germany
In the aftermath of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s controversial visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals from World War II are also buried, Director of the AGI Society, …
What’s in a Name? The German-Israeli Partnership: Is it a Special Relationship, a Friendship, an Alliance, or Reconciliation?
As the German and Israeli cabinets assembled in late February in Jerusalem for their fifth set of bilateral consultations since 2008, most of the statements and speeches focused on the …
The Franco-German Elysée Treaty at Fifty: A Model for Others?
The fiftieth anniversary of the 1963 Elysée Treaty provides occasion for reflection on the larger meaning of this landmark for Franco-German relations, but also raises the question of whether its …
An Exercise in External Reconciliation
With the EU accepting its Peace and Reconciliation Nobel Prize, it is worth a look at an example of the EU using its reconciliation experience, specifically in the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This essay …